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THE LAW 



IN 



SHAKESPEARE 



Affectic tua nomen imponit operi tuo. 

Br acton. 

Why may not that be the skull of a la^wyer[? 

Ilaiiilet. 



By C. K. DAVIS. 




ST, PAUL : 
WEST PrBLISHIXG C03IPANY. 

1884. 






Copyright, 1883, 

BY 

C. K. Davis. 



/Z - 3/// 



INTRODUCTIOX. 



SHAKESPEARE'S persistent and correct use of 
law terms was long ago noticed and caused the 
conjecture that he must have studied in an attor- 
ney's office. What is the truth in this respect will 
probably never be certainly known ; but that he was 
more addicted to the employment of legal nomen- 
clature than any English writer (excepting, of course, 
the jurists) is incontestable. 

The work of winter evenings, commenced long 
ago, as an incident to habitual study of the works of 
him "who converted the elements which awaited at 
his command into entertainments," is submitted 
with little speculation upon questions concerning 
which there have been many words and few demon- 
strations. It is not pretended that every legal phrase 
which he used is here presented. The aim has been 
not to extend the task beyond the necessity of proof 
into a wearisome repetition of expressions which 
often recur in scores. To the lawver many of the 

(3) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



notes will be needless, though some of them will 
be found helpful. I have not hesitated to present 
the definitions of the commonest legal terms. Ta 
those unversed in law lore, they will present at a 
glance the argument intrinsic in the text. Some 
of the quotations, taken alone, are doubtless of in- 
fling probative force. They are given because, in 
cumulative testimony, each independent fact is a 
multiplier. 

AVe seem to have here something more than a 
sciolist's temerity of indulgence in the terms of 
an unfamiliar art. No legal solecisms will be 
found. The abstrusest elements of the common 
law are impressed into a disciplined service with 
every evidence of the right and knowledge of com- 
manding. Over and over again, where such knowl- 
edge is unexampled in writers unlearned in the law, 
Shakespeare appears in perfect possession of it. In 
the law of real property, its rules of tenure and de- 
scents, its entails, its fines and recoveries, and their 
vouchers and double vouchers; in the procedure of 
the courts, the methods of bringing suits and of 
arrests, the nature of actions, the rules of pleading, 
the law of escapes, and of contempt of court; in 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



the principles of evidence, both technical and phil- 
osophical; in the distinction between the temporal 
and the spiritual tribunals ; in the law of attainder 
and forfeiture; in the requisites of a valid mar- 
riage; in the presumption of legitimacy; in the 
learning of the law of prerogative ; in the inaliena- 
ble character of the crown, — this mastership ap- 
pears with surprising authority. 

It is not necessary in accounting for this to as- 
sault truth with a paradox, or to put a mask upon 
the face of the first of men. The law books of that 
time were few. Shakespeare's French is nearly as 
bad as the law French in which many of them were 
written; and it is not to be forgotten that to learn 
must have been easy to this man, whose mental 
endowments were so universal that the best intel- 
lects of after times have vainl}^ essayed to admeas- 
ure them. 

Coleridge has remarked "that a young author's 
first work almost always bespeaks his recent pur- 
suits." He might have said with equal correctness 
that any author's works can never entirely hide his 
former pursuits. These may be betrayed by the 
style, or by prejudices, aft'ections, antipathies, or af- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



fectations. Gibbon thought that his experience as 
an officer in the Hampshire militia was of assistance 
to him in describing that vast nutation in history 
whereby the Eoman world, by a process almost 
physical in appearance, shifted from temperate sim- 
plicity, grandeur, civilization, and solidity to trop- 
ical luxury, effeminacy, barbarism, and quick decay. 
Were every detail of Falconer's and Somerville's 
lives unknown, it would be certain from their works 
that the one was a sailor and the other a sports- 
man. Sir Walter Scott had been called to the bar 
and his works attest his legal proficiency. We see 
Fielding's experience as a magistrate in the ex- 
amination of Partridge, in the conspiracy between 
Lady Booby and Lawyer Scout against Fanny, 
and in that masterpiece of savage irony, the life of 
the late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. We know 
from the details of mercantile routine in Eobinson 
Crusoe and Colonel Jack that Defoe must have 
been a merchant. That Thackeray had been an 
artist is very apparent in his works. Donne, (1572- 
1631,) who had been a student at Lincoln's Inn, 
satirized a barrister's wooing in law phrase : 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



" he throws, 

Like nets or lime twigs, wheresoe'r he goes, 
His title of barrister on every wench, 
And woos in language of the pleas and bench. 
A motion, lady ! Speak, Coscus. I have been 
In love e'er since tricesirao the queen. 
Continual claims I've made, injunctions got 
To stay my rival's suit, that he should not 
Proceed ; spare me, in Hilary term I went ; 
You said if I returned next 'size in Lent, 
I should be in remitter of your grace. 
In th' interim my letters should take place 
Of affidavits." 

The argument on the present question rests, 
mainly, of course, upon the general and constant 
emplo^^ment by Shakespeare of the terms of a sci- 
ence which, in his time, was crabbed and harsh, 
and which has at any time few points of contact 
with the graces of literature. 

There is another special argument of great force, 
in presenting which my inadequate resources for 
comparison restrict me to the use of Hamlet, though 
I have no doubt that corroborative results will be 
yielded to any one who may make a more extended 
investigation. 

Hamlet was published in quarto in 1603. Com- 
pared with the final version which appeared in the 
folio of 1623, it is a magnificent imperfection, but 



S THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

invaluable because it shows how the hand of the 
master wrought upon his work. From the one to 
the other we see Shakespeare's mind in operation. 
Its creative processes are disclosed. Its industry 
is demonstrated. Here are the blotted lines Jonson 
wished for. We see the growth of immortal blos- 
soms from barren common-places. It is as if some 
sculptor, with an enchanter's power, had wrought 
upon an unadorned Milan cathedral through one 
night, so that the morning showed thousands of 
carvings and statues where the day before were 
only walls of unadorned simplicity. 

If Shakespeare's use of legal learning were not 
that of a full man, with pride in his skill, we should 
not expect to see, in the changes by which he 
brought the play to perfection, any additions or 
elaborations in that respect. But that they do ap- 
pear most remarkably, the following, in which the 
text of the quarto is given, together with that of the 
finished version, will show: 

Who by a seale compact, well ratified by law 

And lieraldrie, did forfeit with his life all those 

His lands which he stood seazed of to the conqueror, 

Against the which a moiety competent 

Was gaged by our king {Quarto.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



To this Shakespeare added 



which had returned 

To the mheritance of Fortinbras, 

Had he been vanquisher ; as by the same covenant 

And carriage of the article designed, 

His fell to Hamlet. 

He hath, mv lord, wrung from me a forced graunt. 

[Quarto.) 
He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave. 
By laborsome petition, and at last 
Upon his will 1 sealed my hard consent. 

{Standard Version.) 

Or that the Everlasting had not fixYl 

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! {Not in Quarto.) 

•Oph. My lord, he hath made man}' tenders of his love to me. 

Cor. Tenders. I, I, tenders you may call them. 

Oph. And withall such earnest vowes. 

Cor. Springes to catch woodcocks. 
What, do 1 not know when the blood doth burne 
How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes. 
In brief, be more scanter of 3'our maiden presence. 
Or tendering thus you'l tender mee a foole. {Quarto.) 

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders 
Of his affection to me. 

Pol. Affection ! Pooh ! You speak like a green girl 
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. 
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them ? 

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. 

Pol. Marry, I'll teach you : think yourself a baby : 
That you have ta'en these tenders for true pa}' 
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly: 
Or — not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, 
Running it thus — you'll tender me a fool, 

( Sta ndard Version. ) 



10 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



"Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, 

Not of that dj^e which their investments show, 

But mere implorators of unholy suits, 

Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, 

The better to beguile." {Not in Quarto.) 

1 did repel his letters, deny his gifts, 

As you did charge me. [Quarto.) 

I did repel his letters, and denied 

His access to me. [Standard Version.} 

For in that dreame of death, when we awake. 

And borne before our everlasting judge, 

From whence no passenger euer returned. 

The undiscovered countrj", at whose sight 

The happy smile and the accursed damn'd. [Quarto.} 

The undiscovered countr}^ from whose bourne 

No traveller returns. [Standard Version.} 

Yet you cannot 
Play upon me, besides to be demanded by a spunge. 

[Quarto.} 
Besides, to be demanded of a spunge : what replication 
Should be made by the son of a king ? [Standard Version.) 

King. Now must 3'our conscience my acquittance seal. 

Laer. It will appear : but tell me 
Why you proceeded not against these feats 
So crimeful and so capital in nature. [Not in Quarto.), 

First Clo. 1 say no, she ought not to be buried 
In Christian burial. , 
Sec. Clo. Why, sir ? 

First Clo. Marry, because slice's drown'd. 
Sec. Clo. But she did not drown e her selfe. 



THE LAW IN SIIAKESPEAKE. 11 

Firiit Clo. No, that's certaine, the water drown'd her. 

Sec. Clo. Yea, but it was against her will. 

First Clo. No, 1 deny that ; for looke you, sir ; I stand here ; 
If the water come to me I drowne not my selfe ; 
But if 1 goe to the water, and am then drown'd, 
Ergo, 1 am guiltie of my owne death. 
Y'are gone ; goe, y'are gone, sir. 

Sec. Clo. 1 ; but see, she hath Christian burial 
Because she is a great woman. [Quarto.) 

First Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wil- 
fully seeks her own salvation ? 

Sec. Clo. I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave 
straight : the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian 
burial. 

First Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in 
her own defence ? 

Sec. Clo. Why, 'tis found so. 

First Clo. it must be ' se offendendo ; ' it cannot be else. 
For here lies the point : if I drown myself wittingly, it argues 
an act : and an act hath three branches : it is, to act, to do, to 
perform : argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 

Sec. Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver, — 

First Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here 
stands the man ; good : if the man go to this water, and drown 
himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, — mark you that ; but 
if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not him- 
self ; argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens 
not his own life. 

Sec. Clo. But is this law ? 

First Clo. Ay, marry, is't ; crowner's quest law. 

Sec. Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't ? If this had not been 
a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian 
burial. [Standard Version.) 

Ham. Looke you, there's another, Horatio. 
Why mai't not be the scull of some Lawyer? 



12 THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 



Me tliinkes lie should indite that fellow 

Of an action of Batterie, for knocking 

Him about the pate with's shovel : now where is your 

Quirkes and quillets now, your vouchers and 

Double vouchers, your leases and free-holde 

And tenements ? Why that same box will scarce 

Hold the conveiance of his land, and must 

The honor lie there ? O pittifull transformance ! 

I prithee tell me, Horatio, 

Is parchment made of sheep-skinnes? 

Hoi\ I, u\y lorde, and of calves-skinnes too. 

Ham. I 'faith they proove themselves sheepe and calves 
That deale with them or put their trust in them. {Quarto.) 

Ham. There's another : why may not that be the skull of a 
Iaw3'er ? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, 
his tenures, and his tricks ? why does he suffer this rude 
knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, 
and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum ! This 
fellow might be in 's time a great bu\"er of land, with his stat- 
utes, his recognizances, his lines, his double vouchers, his re- 
coveries : is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his 
recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt ? will his 
vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and doul)le 
ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures ? 
The verj^ conveyances of his lands will hardl^'lie in this box ; 
and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha ? 

Hot. Not a jot more, my lord. 

Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? 

Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. 

Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance 
in that. {Standard Version.) 

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king. 
As England was his faithful tributary, 
As love between them like the palm might flourish, 
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 13 



And stand a comma 'tween their amities, 
And many such-like 'As'es of great charge, 
That, on the view and knowing of these contents, 
Without debatemenl further, more or less. 
He should the bearers put to sudden death, 
Not shriving-time allow'd. 

Hor. How was this seal'd ? 

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. 
I had my father's signet in mv purse, 
Which was the model of that Danish seal ; 
Folded the writ up in form of the other, 
Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely, 
The changeling never known. {Not in Quarto.) 

Hor. No, I am more an antike Roman 
Than a Dane ; here is some poison left. 

H(im. Upon my love i charge thee let it goe. 

fie, Horatio, and if thou shoulds't die 
What a scandale woulds't thou leave behind; 
What tongue should tell the story of our deaths. 

If not from thee, {Quarto.) 

Ham. Had 1 but time— as this fell sergeant, Death, 

Is strict in his arrest — O, I could tell you — 

But let it be. Horatio, I am dead ; 

Thou livest ; report me and my cause aright 

To the unsatisfied. 
Hor. Never believe it ; 

1 am more an antique lloman than a Dane ; 
Here is yet some liquor left. 

Ham. As thou'rt a man, 

Give me the cup : let go ; b}' heaven, I'll have't. 
O good Horatio, what a wounded name. 
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! 
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, 
Absent thee from felicity awhile, 
And in this harsh world draw th}' breath in pain. 
To tell my story. {Standard Version.) 



14 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

It thus appears that Shakespeare amplilied the 
statement of the compact with Fortinbras; changed 
Polonius' term, "a forced graunt," to a more formal 
and elaborate legal expressioa; inserted the word 
"canon" to express a divine law ; forced the word 
"tender" to an ampler use; called lover's oaths "bro- 
kers;" caught the idem so nans of. the word "borne" 
and changed it to "bourne" as the boundary of that 
undiscovered country; took the suggestion of the 
word "demanded" and asked what "replication" shall 
be made; added the request for a "sealed acquit- 
ance," and the demand why "capital" crimes had 
not been "proceeded against;" rewrote the dialogue 
between the clowns solely to enlarge it and make 
it more accurate in its legal meaning, and more 
relevant to the case in Plowden; reconstructed 
Hamlet's meditations on the lawyer's skull; cor- 
rected the inaccurate suggestion of an indictment 
for an action of battery; struck out the words 
"leases and free-holde and tenements;" added to 
the enumeration of the devices of money-lenders 
the words "buyer of land," "statutes," "recognizan- 
ces," "fines," "recoveries," — all with the greatest 
pains-taking to be full and accurate; added to the 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 15 

purport of the king's letter to England and, where 
Hamlet, in the quarto, merely resists Horatio's at- 
tempt to drink the cup by expressing a desire that 
he should live to tell the story, changed this to an 
injunction to his friend to live to 



report me and my cause aright 



To the uusatistied. 

By an unlearned writer such a task of correction 
and amplification would never have been attempted. 
By one who was learned in the subject, and who 
either delighted in it or had the tendency of prac- 
tice in its employment, it was inevitable that this 
should be done. 

In the scene between Hamlet and his father's 
ghost the effect of the "juice of cursed hebenon" is 
stated with much detail. This passage was also 
retouched, but no material change was made. No 
symptom or effect was added. The legal state- 
ments were changed throughout. But the former 
needed correction, for it is very inaccurate. The 
introduction of poison into the circulation through 
the porches of the ear, so that the effect will be an 
instantaneous incrustation of the skin, was a con- 
•ception of Shakespeare and has no foundation in 
medical science. 



16 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

It is especially to be noticed that this legal learn« 
ing is accurately sustained in many passages with 
cumulative and progressive application. The word 
employed becomes suggestive of other words, or of 
a legal jmnciple, and these are at once used so fully 
that their powers are exhausted. In one scene the 
lover, wishing a kiss, prays for a grant of pasture- 
on his mistress' lips. This suggests the law of 
common of pasture, and she replies that her lips 
are no common. This suggests the distinction be- 
tween tenancy in common and tenancy in severalty, 
the lips being several, and she adds, "though sev- 
eral they be." Miranda and Ferdinand simply 
betroth themselves; sanctimonious ceremonies are 
intended to follow. In the case of Florizel and 
Perdita the contract before witnesses is proposed, 
but the disguised father interrupts the proceed- 
ings and prevents a marriage. In the case of 
Mariana there is a contract of marriage, followed 
by consummation in the legal and physical sense,, 
and it is not even suggested that this is not a 
valid marriage. In describing the wager of battle 
everything is correctly and orderly set forth. The 
appeal is made ; gloves are thrown down and taken 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 17 

up; the lists are set upon the green ; proclamation 
is made; the judges take their places; the king 
stops the combat by throwing down his warder. 
The regularity of the process in Shylock v. Anto- 
nio is fully pointed out elsewhere. The trial of 
Queen Catherine opens with a j)roposition to read 
the commissions of the judges, citation is made, her 
appearance is demanded, and she refuses it, be- 
cause to appear will be a submission to the juris- 
diction of the court. This is precisely the ground 
upon which Mary Stuart stood at her trial, and so 
insurmountable did her prosecutors deem it to be, 
that she was cajoled into doing that which Catherine 
refused. The barbarous penalty of Shylock's bond 
is a reminiscence of the Twelve Tables, by which 
the creditors of a delinquent debtor were allowed 
to cut him into pieces. The Italian novel upon 
which the play is founded attributes the same 
penalty to the bond. So does the old ballad of 
Gernutus. It has been contended that the ballad 
is the offspring of the play, but incorrectly, because 
the former contains nothing concerning any woman 
as a judge, — a circumstance too effective to have 
been omitted by any ballad maker who drew his in- 

9, 



18 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

spiration from the play. When Hamlet surmises 
that the skull may be that of a lawyer, a lender of 
money, he enumerates at once the methods by 
which loans were secured. The words "factor" and 
"broker" are used with perfect understanding of the 
technical differences in their meaning. Tamora 
claims her Eoman citizenship through her incorpo- 
ration into a Eoman family under the principle of 
adoption by marriage. Lear partitions his king- 
dom, and delivers it by livery of seizin. He entails 
the crown by apt words. Hermione is accused of 
adultery, and therefore of treason, according to the 
statute of Edward HI. The validity of the acts of 
a king de facto and the duty of obedience to him are 
stated with the most precise understanding of the 
distinction between officers de facto and those de 
jure. Helena is a feudal ward. Cade makes a bes- 
tial pun, suggested by tenancy in capite, and by an 
infernal privilege of stupration, which is one of the 
recondite curiosities of the law. Dromio asserts 
that there is no time for a bald man to recover 
his hair. This having been written, the law phrase 
suggested itself, and he was asked whether he 
might not do it by fine and recovery, and this sug- 



THE LAAV IX SHAKESPEARE. 19 

gested the efficiency of that proceeding to bar heirs; 
a.nd this started the conceit that thus the lost hair 
of another man would be recovered. A 'quest of 
thoughts all tenants to the heart is impaneled to 
decide the question of title to the visage of the 
beloved one between the heart and the eye, where 
the defendant denies the plea, and the verdict is a 
moiety to each. The remembrance of things past 
is summoned up to the sessions of sweet, silent 
thought. 

These illustrations have been given as they oc- 
cur to the memory from hundreds of passages to 
enforce the argument of the probative force of ac- 
cumulated circumstances from diverse sources, 
when there can be no doubt of the circumstances 
themselves. There is no question here of fabri- 
cated evidence. While the simulation of evidence 
by perverting or inventing circumstances is a de- 
vice of all fabricators from the time of the exhibi- 
tion of Joseph's coat to Jacob, the noting the mole 
on Imogen's snow-pure breast, the smearing by 
Lady Macbeth of the grooms' faces with blood, and 
the use of the handkerchief by lago, are done with 
legal craft, and form Shakespeare's judgment upon 



20 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

what is called circumstantial evidence, which after 
all the judicial cant upon the subject, such as the 
assertion that circumstances cannot lie, can be 
made the most illusory of all testimony ; for while 
circumstances cannot lie, they can be feigned, in- 
vented, distorted, half-stated, misapplied, mistaken,, 
or lied about with most infernal skill. It is upon 
circumstantial evidence so misunderstood that the 
claims of all impostors have been maintained from 
the falsi Neronis ludibrio which moved the hosts 
of Parthia to the pretensions of the claimant in 
the Tichborne case. The least mistake makes all 
the difference in the world. Suppose, for instance, 
that in the perspective of ages events should be 
so foreshortened that the years which cover Shake- 
speare's life-time and that of Milton should blend^ 
it might be argued from the extracts from Comus, 
which are hereinafter set out, from an assump- 
tion that Shakespeare was an obscure and illit- 
erate man, and from Milton's commanding intel- 
lectual force and erudition, that the latter wrote 
the plays in that heyday of his youth when, ac- 
cording to his own statement, he delighted in the 
sinuosi pompa theatri; or it might be maintained 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 21 

with nearly equal force that Shakespeare wrote 
Areopagitica or Paradise Lost in his later years, 
after he had forsaken the vanities of his youth, 
had become devout, and had thrown all the forces 
of his mighty intellect into the polemics incident 
to a great political and religious revolution. These 
•considerations are also relevant to what it is in- 
tended to submit relative to the theory that Francis 
Bacon was Shakespeare. 

We can apply here the tests which decide our 
ordinar}^ actions, and which in courts are found 
sufficient to adjudicate the most momentous ques- 
tions. In the daily conduct of our lives we act 
upon the results of a calculation of probabilities. 
We frequently make it for ourselves, but as to our 
habitual actions it was made for us, perhaps thou- 
sands of years ago, and its results constitute what 
we call experience. In any such case, it is found 
from observation that a certain series of events is 
followed by certain consequences, so tliat an aggre- 
gate of circumstances being given we assume that 
but one result can follow. So unvarying are such 
results that, for all practical purposes, they are cer- 



22 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

tainties. These experiences form the path in which 
we traverse life. They guide our business conduct. 
They map the course of storms upon the sea. They 
know where planets will shine, what eclipses will 
occur, what comets will return, for all time to come. 
It is thus that order is introduced into what is ap- 
parently inextricable confusion, and relationship is 
established between subjects separated by vast 
intervals of time and space. This is the great 
triumph of comparative philology which demon- 
strated the affinity of languages, traced diverse 
peoples to a common origin, and went far to mark 
the stages of their progress from the table lands of 
Asia through all the centuries from the morning of 
time. From this the unity of many nations was 
deduced, and a substantial identity of their religious 
conceptions, primal laws and domestic habits be- 
came established facts. All this is the result of 
what Whewell calls the "consilience of inductions." 
One fact seldom proves much beyond itself, but 
two facts may prove a third, and when among a hun- 
dred or a thousand separate facts, each shows a re- 
lation, not dependent on another but independent 
of it, to all the rest, and also a relation to some: 



THE LAAV IX SHAKESPEARE. 23 

other fact not susceptible of actual observation, 
but which is the object to be demonstrated; when 
each fact points to one cause or result, and to no 
other; when an analysis of the elements of each 
fact shows the same unvarying convergence to 
one point; when any one fact may be removed from 
any function in the process and the result remain 
the same; when research and addition to the mass 
of circumstances, instead of displacing its probative 
direction only renders it more steady, — the certainty 
that the object which they indicate is the solution 
of the question becomes so great that the most sti^i- 
pendous figures are inadequate to express the in- 
fallibility of the result. Every one remembers the 
problem of the blacksmith who engaged to shoe a 
horse for one cent for the first nail, two cents for 
the next, four cents for the next, and so on, doub- 
ling the preceding number for each nail until all 
the nails should be computed for. The result is an 
illustration of the high power of proof to w^iich the 
accumulated and progressive force of many circum- 
stances can be raised. It is true that one positively 
established fact, out of many, which points con- 
clusively to another result, may entirely invalidate 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 



the demonstration, and this is the fallacy of circum- 
stantial evidence as it is commonly understood to 
be. The witness may be false, he may be mis- 
taken, he may not be clear, he may unintentionally 
pervert or suppress something. But in matters of 
textual criticism, such as are now under considera- 
tion, there is no possibility of such perturbations. 
I regard Paley's Horae Paulinae as one of the 
most helpful books that a law student can read. 
It trains him for the most strenuous dialectics of 
his profession. Paley's thesis is that all the epistles 
which the canon attributes to St. Paul were written 
by one man, and with a power of analysis and ap- 
plication of proofs which has never been surpassed, 
he proves it by citing examj)les from each epistle 
of undesigned coincidences, minute, obscure, latent, 
and oblique, which abound throughout the Pauline 
writings. He says "they form no continued story; 
they compose no regular correspondence ; the}' com- 
prise not the transactions of any particular period; 
they carry on no connection of argument ; the}- de- 
pend not upon one another; no study or care has 
been employed to preserve the appearance of con- 
sistency amongst them; they w^ere not intended by 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEAllE. 25 

the person, whoever he was, that wrote them to 
come forth or he read together; they appeared at 
first separately and have heen collected since." If 
these tests are applied to the hooks of the Evangel- 
ists, it will appear, upon the most cursory examina- 
tion, that they were each written hy a different man. 
Some of the most interesting discoveries in astro- 
nomical science have heen predicted 03^ the applica- 
tion of the calculus of prohahilities. For instance, 
Michell, in 1767, noticed that many fixed stars had 
companions close to them. Such a conjunction as 
to one or two stars would have no probative force, for 
they might beat a great distance from each other and 
lie on the same line of sight. But this optical union 
was so apparent in many stars that he asserted the 
existence of a bond between most of the double 
stars. Struve computed the odds to be 9,570 to 1 
that any two stars of not less than the seventh mag- 
nitude could fall within the apparent distance of 
four minutes of each other by chance, and yet 
ninety-one of such cases had been observed when 
his computation was made, and many more have 
been since discovered. There were also four known 
triple stars, and the odds against the casual con- 



26 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



junction of these were 173,524 to 1. Michell's 
conjecture was verified nearly a century after it was 
made by the discovery that many of the double stars 
are directly connected with each other under the 
law of gravitation. 

Nearly all of the planetary movements have sim- 
ilarity of direction. In the time of Laplace eleven 
planets were known, and the directions were known 
for the sun, six planets, the satellites of Jupiter,. 
Saturn's ring, and one of his satellites. There were 
thus known forty-three concurring motions; that 
is, the orbital motions of eleven planets and eight- 
een satellites and fourteen axial rotations. The 
probability that this number of independent mo- 
tions should coincide by chance is as an odds of 
about 4,400,000,000,000 to 1. 

The application of the doctrine of probabilities to 
the argument that Shakespeare was learned in the 
law is manifest. The nature of the subject, of 
course, makes the odds inexpressible by numerical 
notation. But the principle of increment of proba- 
tive force is the same here as in the case of the vis- 
ible and ponderable bodies, concerning which Struve 
and Laplace made their computations. 



THE LAAV IX SHAKESPEARE. 27 

Suppose that within the last year all of these 
writings had been collected from scattered sources ; 
some from libraries and family archives in England ; 
some from old repositories in Massachusetts and 
Virginia. The authorship by one person or by many 
persons being the question, what testimony could be 
more convincing that they were written by one man 
than these undesigned, unstudied, obscure, oblique, 
latent, and cumulative legal expressions which occur 
in each play ? 

This being settled, the next question would be 
what manner of man was he who produced this in- 
comparable body of thought and imagination? 
Was he merely a man of letters, or was he also a 
physician, or a lawyer, or a soldier ? The same pro- 
cess of induction can be employed. It is found that 
the test of the use of technical phrases is applicable. 
It is found that they abound. Their use is accurate, 
unstudied, cumulative, incidental, undesigned for 
any purpose except their special employment in the 
places where they occur; is so subtle in illustra- 
tive function, as often to require special research 
to apply it; that the productions in which they oc- 
cur form no continued story ; that they were orig- 



"28 THE LAW IN SHAKE.^PEARE. 

inally separate productions ; that many of them were 
not published at all in the life -time of the author, 
but were handed out to actors to be learnt ; that they 
cover the term of a long literary life ; that they do 
not comprise the transactions of any one period; 
that they carry on no connection of argument, nor 
do they depend upon one another; that they ex- 
hibit no such familiarity with other arts, sciences, 
or vocations, but that as to them they are full of 
errors and carelessness. All this makes out a 
case by demonstration so absolute that no hypoth- 
esis is left except that the writer was learned in the 
law. The most persuasive argument concerning the 
authorship of the letters of Junius is the familiarity 
which they display with the routine of the war ofitice, 
in which Francis was employed. Chatterton hoaxed 
profound scholars by his wonderful simulation 
of coincidences and archaisms, apparently unde- 
signed, and was detected by the inaccuracies which 
cannot be avoided in any such attempt. Sir John 
Coleridge' broke down the Tichborne claimant by 
a cross-examination which proved his ignorance of 
facts, or the details of events, which must have been 
known to him had he been what he pretended to be. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 29" 

The dyer's hand is always subdued to what it 
works in. Professor Greenleaf examined the tes- 
timony of the Evangelists by the rules of evidence 
administered in courts of justice. That St. Mat- 
thew was a native Jew, familiar with the opinions, 
ceremonies, and customs of his countrymen, con- 
versant with their sacred writings, and of little 
learning except what he derived from them, he holds 
to be established by the internal evidence of his gos- 
pel. That St. Mark wrote at Eome for the use of the 
Gentile converts, he argues from the numerous Lat- 
inisms which he employs and from the explanations 
he gives, which would be useless to a Jew. That St. 
Luke was a physician, he maintains, is apparent 
from his gospel, which shows that he was an acute 
observer, who had given particular and even profes- 
sional attention to all of our Savior's miracles of 
healing; that where Matthew and Mark describe a 
man simply as a leper, he writes that he was full of 
leprosy; that he whom they mention as having a 
withered hand is described by him as having his 
right hand withered; that he alone, with a physi- 
cian's accuracy, says that the virtue went out of 
Jesus and healed the sick; that he alone relates 



30 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

the fact that the sleep of the disciples in Gethse- 
mane was induced by excessive sorrow, and attrib- 
utes the blood-like sweat of our Kedeemer to the 
intensity of His agony, and that he alone relates 
the miraculous healing of Malchus' ear. 

It has been maintained that the company of play- 
ers to which Shakespeare belonged visited Scotland 
in the autumn of 1601, and that they were at Aber- 
deen in October of that year. It has been argued 
that Shakespeare in Macbeth displays a knowledge 
of the topography of the country around Forres 
and of the local superstitions and traditions, so 
much beyond any information given in Holinshed's 
Chronicle, that he must have accompanied the play- 
ers, and it must be admitted that a most plausible 
showing is made. 

This branch of the argument can best be en- 
forced by the words of an eminent text-writer on 
the law of evidence : 

"In estimating the force of a number of circum- 
stances tending to the proof of the disputed fact, it 
is of essential importance to consider whether they 
be dependent or independent. If the facts A, B, 
<J, D, be so essential to the particular inference to 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 31 

he derived from them, when established, that the 
failure of the proof in any one would destroy the 
inference altogether, they are dependent facts. If, 
on the other hand, notwithstanding the failure in 
proof of one or more of those facts, the rest would 
still afford the same inference or probability as to 
the contested fact which they did before, they would 
be properly termed independent facts. The force 
of a particular inference drawn from a number of 
dependent facts is not augmented, neither is it 
diminished, in respect of the number of such de- 
pendent facts, provided they be established; but 
ihe probability that the inference itself rests upon 
sure grounds, is, in general, weakened by the mul- 
tiplication of the number of circumstances essential 
to the proof; for the greater the number of circum- 
stances essential to the proof is, the greater lati- 
tude is there for mistake or deception. On the 
other hand, where each of a number of independ- 
ent circumstances, or combination of circumstances, 
tends to the same conclusion, the probability of the 
truth of the fact is necessarily greatly increased in 
proportion to the number of those independent cir- 
•cumstances." 



82 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

"The probability derived from the concurrence 
of a number of independent probabilities increases 
not in a merely cumulative, but in a compound 
and multiplied, proportion. This is a consequence 
derived from pure abstract arithmetical principles. 
For although no definite arithmetical ratio can be 
assigned to each independent probability, yet the 
principle of increase must obtain wherever inde- 
pendent probabilities in favor of an event occur, 
although they cannot be precisely measured by 
space or numbers ; and even although every dis- 
tinct probability which is of a conclusive tendency 
exceeds every merely definite numerical ratio." 

"The nature of such coincidences is most impor- 
tant. Are they natural ones, which bear not the 
marks of artifice and premeditation? Do they oc- 
cur in points obviously material, or in minute and 
remote points which were not likely to be material, 
or in matters the importance of which could not 
have been foreseen? The number" of such coinci- 
dences is also worthy of the most attentive consid- 
eration. Human cunning, to a certain extent, may 
fabricate coincidences, even with regard to minute 
points, the more effectually to deceive ; but the co- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 33 

incidences of art and invention are necessarily cir- 
cumscribed and limited; while those of truth are 
indefinite and unlimited. The witnesses of art will 
be copious in their detail of circumstances as far 
as their prevision extends. Beyond this, they will 
be sparing and reserved for fear of detection, and 
thus their testimony will not be even and consist- 
ent throughout ; but the witnesses of truth will be 
equally ready and equally copious upon all points." 
Paley also remarks that "the undesignedness of 
coincidences is to be gathered from their latency, 
their minuteness, their obliquity; the suitable- 
ness of the circumstances in which they consist 
to the places in which those circumstances occur, 
and the circuitous references by which they are 
traced out, demonstrate that they have not been 
produced by meditation or by any fraudulent con- 
trivance; but coincidences from which these causes 
are excluded, and which are too close and numer- 
ous to be accounted for by accidental concurrence 
of fiction, must necessarily have truth for their 
foundation." 
3 



34 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Shakespeare had a lawyer's conservatism. He 
respected the established order of things. He chis- 
els the republican Brutus in cold and marble beauty, 
but paints with beams of sunlight the greatness, 
bravery, and generosity of imperial Caesar. Corio- 
lanus is the impersonation of patrician contempt 
for popular rights. Shakespeare passes unnoticed 
the causes which led to Cade's insurrection because 
he cares not for them, — causes so just that hon- 
orable terms were exacted by the insurgents. His 
portrait of Joan of Arc, the virgin mother of French 
nationality, who raised it to glory because the peo- 
ple believed in her, is a great offence. There is 
nowhere a hint of sympathy with personal rights as 
against the sovereign, nor with parliament, then first 
assuming its protective attitude towards the Eng- 
lish people, nor with the few judges who, like Coke, 
showed a glorious obstinacy in their resistance to 
the prerogative. In all his works there is not one 
direct word for liberty of speech, thought, religion, 
— those rights which in his age were the very seeds 
of time, into which his eye, of all men's, could best 
look to see which grain would grow and which would 
not. In all ages great men and great women have 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAKE. 35 

died for humanity, but none of these have been com- 
memorated by him. The fire of no martyr gleams 
in his pages. 

That the stage was under censorship cannot ex- 
plain or excuse all this. Such was the disposition 
of the man. He had noble conceptions of national 
grandeur, but they were of great kings and their 
conquests. Macbeth, Richard, and Claudius en- 
throne themselves through assassination, and there 
is not a word for the popular distress which such 
crimes always inflict. Every revolt is to him a 
riot. The leaders are contemptible miscreants. 
There is no pity for common suffering, no lash for 
the great man's contumely towards the lowly; only 
a languid murmur against the insolence of office, 
contemptuous pity for the whipped and carted 
strumpet, and nothing which would have hindered 
his promotion had he entered the debasing scram- 
ble of favoritism which disgraced his time. He 
pleased Elizabeth, he pleased James, he would have 
pleased Napoleon. 

The plea cannot be made for him that he was 
not superior to his age. His greatest cotempora- 



36 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

ries were contained within it, but he, the man of 
whom Jonson wrote that — 

He was not for a clay, but for all time ; 

who has set his serene firmament, with all its suns 
and stars, over all men and all ages, who stands in 
his works like the angel Uriel in the sun, is as un- 
sympathetic as the planets themselves with those 
plebeian calamities which constitute the sorrows of 
common life. 

It has been lamented that we do not know the 
man. It is true that we do not know him as Bos- 
well has made us to know Johnson, and often to re- 
spect him less than he deserves. But, as Emerson 
has shown, we do know him. " What trait of his pri- 
vate mind has he hidden in his dramas? One can 
discern in his ample pictures of the gentleman and 
the king what forms and humanities pleased him : 
his delight in troops of friends, in large hospitality, 
in cheerful giving." "So far from Shakespeare be- 
ing the least known, he is the one person in all 
modern history known to us. What point of mor- 
als, of manners, of ceremony, of philosophy, of re- 
ligion, of taste, of the conduct of life, has he not 
settled? What mystery has he not signified his 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAKE. 37 

knowledge of ? What office or function or district 
of man's work has he not remembered ? What king 
has he not taught state as Talma taught Napoleon ? 
What maiden has not found him finer than her 
delicacy? What lover has he not outloved? What 
sage has he not outseen ? What gentleman has he 
not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior?" 
All this is true, but it is not the whole truth. 
We see a man who revered womanhood, who has 
given us the finest types of manhood, who was 
generous, gentle, blameless, who saw through shams 
clearer than Montaigne, who scourged lust, glut- 
tony, lying, slander, cowardice, pedantry, and all 
personal meanness with more than the wit of Eabe- 
lais, and yet who was silent concerning those great 
agitations for personal right and liberty which so 
shortly after he died subverted the monarchy, put 
aside the peerage, overthrew the church, and for 
ever established that the state is made for man 
and not man for the state. 

And now comes some one and says that here is 
more proof that Shakespeare is a mere alias for 
Francis Bacon. It is difficult to touch or let alone 



» 
38 THE LAW IN SriAKESPEAEE. 



this vagary with any patience. One is inclined 
simply to protest in the words of Shakespeare's ep- 
itaph — 

Good frend for lesvs sake forbeare 
To digg the dust encloased liearc, 

and pass on, deeming all secure against a desecra- 
tion worse than that which the poet cursed. But 
the identity has been the subject of so much asser- 
tion that it may be well to pause before the unreal 
mockery and exorcise a few of its fantastic shapes. 

It is not true that Shakespeare was an unlearned 
man. He was learned, but was not a man of fin- 
ished learning. Bacon was a perfected scholar. 
Compare Shakespeare's classical allusions with the 
Wisdom of the Ancients and the difference is man- 
ifest. The one is the learning of a "marvelous 
boy," the other that of the completed scholar. Nor 
is it true that he was an obscure man. He is the 
first English author who made a fortune with his 
pen. In his last years he wrote himself, gentleman. 

In 1592 he received from Greene one of those ma- 
levolent attacks which are made upon none but au- 
thors of established renown. Spenser praised him, 
and he praised Spenser. In 1598, Meres classed 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 39 

him with Plautus and Seneca. Davies in 160T 
•addressed him as the English Terence. Fuller's 
account of him is known to every one. His works 
were gathered with pious care and published by his 
friends within seven years after he died. Ben Jon- 
son was one of the most learned men of his time. 
He so much resembles Samuel Johnson in personal 
and mental traits that it is Ben whom we seem 
to see with Garrick and his friends at the theater. 
He was a fierce critic, a good hater, learned in the 
•classics "as any man in England," a despot in con- 
versation, gross, gluttonous, and scrofulous, his face 
"was seamed with scars, he was passionate, was ab- 
ject in repentance, feared no man, and loved but 
few, yet he loved Shakespeare, and claiming him 
as a child of eternity, has pictured him to us in 
lines which nothing but great love working upon 
great sorrow could have produced from such a man. 

Jonson, we know, was the friend of Francis Ba- 
-con, and to him these men were different beings. 

Milton, who was a child when Shakespeare died, 
•who lived in London, and enjoyed its theatrical 
pleasures, and must have talked with many of 
Shakespeare's cotemporaries, installs him into an 



40 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

inheritance of everlasting fame more durable than 
pyramids or any tombs of kings. 

It is certain that the influence of Shakespeare 
on the youthful Milton was very impressive, and that 
it lasted until it was removed by those great events- 
which made the laureate of Paradise an ascetic 
patriot. The associations of his early days seem 
to have revived in that magnificent lamentation of 
Samson Agonistes, 

Eyeless, — in Gaza, — at the mill. — with slaves, 

(as Landor finely read the lines,) over a common* 
wealth destroyed, himself proscribed, and the time 
forever gone when the bold Ascalonite of prelacy 
and the divine right of kings, 

fled from his lion ramp. 

Milton's epitaph upon Shakespeare stands in the 
folio of 1632. In 1637 we find him writing from 
London the first elegy ad Carolum Deodatum, in. 
which he informs his friend how his time is spent,, 
and attests his habitual attendance at the theater: 

Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri, 
Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos. 
Seu catus auditur senior, seu prodigus liseres, 
Seu procus, aut posita casside miles adest, 
Sive decennali focundus lite patronus 
Detonat inculto barbara verba foro I 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 41 

Svepe vafer gnato succurrit servus amanti, 

Et nasura rigidi fallit ubique patris ; 

Ssepe novos illic virgo mirata calores, 

Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat. 

Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum 

Quassat, et eftusis crinibus ora rotat, 

Et dolet et specto, juvat et spectassc dolendo. 

Interdiim et lacrymis dulcis amaror in est : 

Seu piier infelix indelibata reliquit 

Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit : 

Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor 

Conscia funereo pectora torre movens. 

The last four lines have been thought to refer to- 
Eomeo, and to Banquo's ghost or to the one in 
Hamlet. 

Comus is filled with undisguised borrowings from 

Shakespeare. 

Ere the blabbing eastern scout 
The nice morn. 

is Shakespeare's 

Gaud}', blabbing, and remorseful da}'. 

The possessor of chastity is "clad in complete 

steel;" so is the ghost in Hamlet. 

With Milton philosophy is 

musical as is Apollo's lute. 

With Shakespeare love is 

as sweet and musical 

As bright Apollo's lute strung with his hair. . 



42 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Comus' dissertation on virginity is a manifest 
adaptation of ParoUes' discourse upon that subject. 
Sabrina sets her 

printless feet 

O'er the cowslips' velvet head. 

And Prospero's elves 

on the sands with printless feet 

Do chase the ebbing Neptune. 

The spirit is another Ariel who 

can soar as soon 



To the corners of the moon, 

like Hecate, who says that 

Great business must be wrought ere noon 
Upon the corner of the moon. 

These extracts have been adduced to show that 
Shakespeare was clearly seen by the greatest man 
of the next generation. 

Charles I. was sixteen years of age when Shakes- 
peare died. Bacon dedicated to him his history of 
Henry VII. Shakespeare, in Macbeth, nobly mag- 
nified the house of Stuart by a prophecy of its 
perpetuity. The works of Shakespeare were the 
closet companion of Charles, who was reproached 
for this by Milton at a time when the fierce zealots 
of rebellion had come to look upon the drama as 
sinful. Falkland was Charles' councillor, and it is 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 43 

from him that we have respecting Caliban the first 
critical estimate extant of any character in Shakes- 
peare. And yet from prince, king, courtier, poet, 
or scholar, we hear no hint which can give this 
modern theory the slightest support. 

Bacon was actively engaged in the court of chan- 
cery for many years before he became lord chan- 
cellor. It was then that the memorable war of ju- 
risdiction was waged between Ellesmere and Coke, 
and yet there is not in the works of Shakespeare, 
to the best of my belief, a single phrase or word, 
much less any application of any principle, peculiar 
to the chancery. 

Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis, and 
the Rape of Lucrece, to the Earl of Southampton, 
with strong expressions of affection, and it is a 
tradition that he was munificently treated by that 
nobleman. No one has ever denied that the author 
of these poems is also the author of the plays. 
But if Bacon was Shakespeare, it is incredible that 
within a few years the former should hav'e appeared 
as volunteer counsel against Essex and Southamp- 
ton in that trial which has so stained Bacon's 
name, or that he should have undertaken after- 



44 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

wards, in his Declaration of the Treason of Eobert, 
Earl of Essex, the task of proving the complicity 
of his friend and patron in that conspiracy. 

It is also remarkable that in this same produc- 
tion, in order to fasten guilt upon the conspirators. 
Bacon lays especial stress upon the fact "that the 
afternoon before the rebellion, Merick, with a great 
company of others, that afterwards were all in 
the action, had procured to be played before them 
the play of deposing King Eichard the Second. 
Neither was it casual, but a play bespoken by 
Merick; but when it was told him by one of the 
players that the play was old, and that they should 
have loss in playing it, because few would come to 
it, there were forty shillings extraordinary given 
to play it, and so thereupon played it was. So 
earnest was he to entirely satisfy his eyes with the 
sight of that tragedy, which he thought soon after 
his lordship should bring from the stage to the 
state, but that God turned it upon their own 
heads." 

If Francis Bacon wrote Eichard II. it was a 
piece of matchless effrontery for him to maintain 
that his own production had been displayed as a 



THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 45 

counterfeit i3resentment in aid of a treason in 
which his friend was engaged. 

And in the face of all this and much more we 
are asked to helieve that Bacon, colluding with 
Shakespeare, practiced this stupendous imposture 
for nearly twenty-five years, and that it was unde- 
tected and unsuspected until after more than two 
•centuries had passed away. 

If we look to the intrinsic evidence wrenched 
and misapplied by conjecture from the treasures 
which these men left to us, we find nothing "but 
a foolish and extravagant spirit, full of forms, fig- 
ures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, mo- 
tions, revolutions, begot in the ventricle of memory, 
nourished in the womb of j^ia mater, and delivered 
upon the mellowing of occasion." 

Bacon's prose has less rhythmus than Hooker's 
or Kaleigh's. We have specimens of his versifica- 
tion. He translated seven of the psalms into Eng- 
lish verse, and here is his first verse : 

Who never gave to wicked reed 
A yielding and attentive ear ; 
Who never sinner's path did tread 
Nor sat him down in scorner's chair, 
But maketh it his whole delight 



46 THE LAW IN SIIAKESPEAKE. 

On law of God to meditate, 

And therein spcndeth da\' and night, 

That man is in a happ}' state. 

Sternhold could not make this worse. Compare 
it with the crudest lines Shakespeare ever wrote. 

The differences between these most august of in- 
tellectual beings are manifest. Both were sages; 
one was a poet, the other a philosopher. It is the 
difference between Homer and Plato. Both had 
great imaginations, but Bacon's was a reasoning 
imagination, which disclosed its logical processes. 
That of Shakespeare was intuitive, and left little 
trace of its trackless paths of development. It is 
the difference betw^een two continents of vast area, 
watered by great and fertilizing rivers, full through- 
out of nature's wonders; but one is temperate, or- 
derly, subject to little variation, while the other is 
tropical, ravaged by storms, the home of the greatest 
beauties sleeping in the very dens of the greatest ter- 
rors, and both beneficent and enduring. Each was 
a discoverer. But Bacon made his quest in the ma- 
terial world, while Shakespeare voyaged through the 
mind and soul of man and reached their destinies. 
One is the Columbus and the other the Dante of 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 47 

thought. The results have been different. The in- 
trepid experimental investigation of causes upon 
which Bacon insisted as the only force which could 
break down the prison walls of knowledge, placed 
thought upon a line of logical consequences leading 
directly to much that we now enjoy so completely of 
social, political, and religious rights. This is the 
greatest boon ever bestowed upon humanity by one 
man. Bacon's genius triumphed in his closet over 
the servility of his disposition, and, so triumphing, 
impelled the race to results to which he, living, 
never could have led it. 

The consequences which have flowed from Shakes- 
peare have been even more diffused. They are not 
mere results. The man and his effects live and 
touch persons. His works are known to all men. 
Bacon's are known to few. Bacon is to us imper- 
sonal precisely where his influence is greatest, and 
is real where he has ceased to act. We know the 
supple courtier, the false friend, the pliant lawyer, 
and the corrupt judge. But the philosopher, in the 
midst of whose system we stand to-day, is nearly 
an ideal conception. Shakespeare, colorless as he 
is in all that regards material knowledge or politi-^ 



48 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



cal and religious rights, is with us always; speaks 
to us every day; interprets us to ourselves; is im- 
manent in our literature as its presiding spirit. 

"Bacon little knew or suspected that there was 
then existing (the only one that ever did exist) his 
superior in intellectual power. Position gives mag- 
nitude. While the world was rolling above Shakes- 
peare, he was seen imperfectly. When he rose 
above the world, it was discovered that he was 
greater than the world. The most honest of his 
contemporaries would scarcely have admitted this, 
even had they known it. But vast objects of re- 
mote altitude must be looked at a long while before 
they are ascertained. Ages are the telescope-tubes 
that must be lengthened out for Shakespeare, and 
generations of men serve but as single witnesses to 
his claims." {Landor.) 

The strongest proof that Shakespeare's legal 
knowledge was very great consists in the confident 
and cumulative use of these terms, not only in the 
general fact that they so recur in every play, in all 
the poems, and even in the dedications, but also in 
their exhaustive use in many passages where to ex- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 49 

plain some principle, to carry out some comparison 
or analogy to its likeness to the finest Imes and 
features of the thought, to push some conceit to 
the remotest extravagance, so that it is necessary 
for a well-read lawyer to make special investigation 
into the law and statutes of that time before he 
<3an follow it, Shakespeare exhausts the capacity of 
the terms he employs. 

We turn from these exhibitions of thorough tech- 
nical skill to see whether he displays anything like 
such familiarity in other departments of knowledge. 
We find little that tends to show proficiency in 
medicine, and this is everybody's science. In ge- 
ography he is as perfectly without location as his 
"still vex'd Bermoothes, " which no research has 
been able to map. No dogma stains his plain be- 
lief in Him who was 

nailed 

For our advantage to the bitter cross. 

With time and place his tricks are more magical 
than that by which Puck girdled the earth in forty 
minutes. He is utterly indifferent to the devil and 
hell-fire, excepting in Henry VI. in Hamlet, and in 
that terrific use of the witches in Macbeth, who seem 



50 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

to have received from him a power beyond their own 
to call up from futurity the coroneted baby-brows^ 
the two-fold balls, and treble scepters. In music he 
discloses little technical learning, although he could 
make the concourse of sweet sounds quire with the 
young-ey'd cherubim, so divinely was his soul at- 
tuned who expressed the whole compass of our lan- 
guage in harmonies which we hear from him only. 
We find little knowledge of tactics or maneuvers and 
less of nautical terms, although it was an age of 
wars by land and sea, and his works are filled with 
soldiery. There is next to nothing of the ancient 
philosophies; not one of Plato's glorious and cloudy 
dreams was ever smitten by the light of this glori- 
fying sun. 

The wonder at this use of legal expressions is not 
so much that Shakespeare understood them so well, 
as it is that the man who commanded the most co- 
pious vocabulary that any English writer has ever 
been able to wield, should have used them with 
such persistence. Surely he did not need them as 
instruments of expression. His resources in the 
treasuries of words were too vast for that. These 
law terms were present in his mind as standards 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 51 

of comparison with things which nothing but his 
own despotic imagination could have brought into 
relevancy. 

I know of no writer who has so impressed into 
his service the terms of any science or art. They 
come from the mouth of every personage : from the 
queen; from the child; from the Merry Wives of 
Windsor; from the Egyptian fervor of Cleopatra; 
from the love-sick Paphian goddess ; from viola- 
ted Lucrece; from Lear, Hamlet, and Othello; from 
Shakespeare himself, soliloquizing in his sonnets; 
from Dogberry and Prospero; from riotous Fal- 
staff and melancholy Jacques. He utters them at 
all times as standard coin, no matter when or in 
what mint stamped. These emblems of his indus- 
try are woven into his style like the bees into the 
imperial purple of Napoleon's coronation robes. 

It may be suggested that this figure, so frequently 
woven into Shakespeare's diction, may test whether 
certain plays, which have been attributed to him, 
come from other hands than his. Thus, I have 
little doubt that Sir John Oldcastle, if not wholly 
written by him, bears the imprint of his golden 
hand. The passage concerning the royal buck, the 



52 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



scene where Harpool forces the sumner to eat the 
citation he has come to serve, and the other legal 
phrases, taken together, seem to indicate this. If 
he did not compose the entire play, he mingled in 
its composition, like a skillf al teacher who corrects 
the awkward execution of a pupil, by letting his 
hand fall for a moment upon the keys to strike 
chords of recognized harmony. 

The soundest English and German critics agree 
that he wrote the first act of the Two Noble Kins- 
men, and that the rest of the play is by Fletcher, 
who took the organ from the master after the pre- 
lude had filled the arches of the imagination with 
its melody. If the first act is tested by compari- 
son with all that follows it, we have the results we 
should expect in such familiar expressions, as "the 
tenor of thy speech," "prorogue," "fee," "moiety," 
"canon," "seal the promise." 

Legal learning and language are essentially un- 
poetical, and the other dramatists of that time were 
sparing in their use. Ben Jonson was a scholar. 
He delighted in the exhibition of accurate knowl- 
edge, but he does not approach the precision or 
ease of his great cotemporary in his representa- 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 53 

tions of legal proceedings, or in his use of legal 
terms. An examination of the court scene in the 
Fox will establish the truth of this remark. 

Fletcher had been a student at Cambridge, and 
Beaumont at Oxford. The latter was the son of a 
judge of the court of common pleas, and was him- 
self bred to the law. But we can find in their works 
no such disposition or facility in the use of law 
terms, or the procedure of the courts. In the 
Little French Lawyer, La Wit, who turns duelist 
and challenges everybody, including the. venerable 
judge who has ruled against him, uses little of the 
vocabulary of his vocation. In the Spanish Curate, 
the lawyer Bartolus is a very important character, 
and considerable legal knowledge appears in his 
sayings and doings, particularl}^ in the scene where 
his debtors sit down to the feast he has made for 
them, and are arrested for debt by the waiters, who 
are disguised officers, under warrants which appear 
as the only repast upon the plates when they are 
uncovered, but the performance is broad, and has 
not the incidental accuracy which appears again 
and again in Shakespeare. 

So Massinger in the Old Law, brings to trial 



54 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAKE. 



the unfilial son and the profligate wife, but the 
scene, as a forensic representation, is crude, lacks 
detail, and displays none of that pomp of justice 
which all courts of any dignity exhibit. 

The affiliation between the disciples of Themis 
and Thespis was a marked feature of those times. 
Many students of law forsook it and became dram- 
atists. So common was this transition that Greene, 
in his Groat's Worth of Wit, published before 
1593, in a passage which has been thought to re- 
flect directly upon Shakespeare, speaks of these 
re-enforcements to the play-writers as those "who 
have left the trade o." Noverint," (know all men, 
etc.) Sir Christopher Hatton wrote a play entitled 
Tancred and Gismmid, and afterwards became 
lord chancellor. So noteworthy were these acces- 
sions from the law students that Ben Jonson be- 
gins the Poetaster, in which he lampoons a rival 
dramatist and the lawyers, with a scene between 
Ovid and his father, who detects the young law 
student writing plays and poems. 

There is so much similarity between the opening 
lines of the Poetaster — 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEAKE. 55 

Then when this bod}' falls in funeral fire, 
My name shall live and my best part aspire, 

and Shakespeare's assertion of undying fame in the 
sonnet — 

Not marble nor the gilded monuments 

Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme, 

ihat one is tempted to conjecture that Jonson in- 
tended to impersonate Shakespeare in Ovid ; but 
the alluring supposition is too fanciful, for we know 
from Ovid himself that — 

Sjepe pater dixit, studium quid inutile tendes, 
MiBonides nullas ipse reliquit opes. 

:# * * ^ *^ * * 

Nan me verbosas leges discere, non me 
Ingrato voces prostituisse foro. 

John Shakespeare, coming to London, and de- 
tecting his son in the composition of plays, would 
•have been a far better theme for an imaginary con- 
Tersation than Landor chose when he gave us the 
•examination of William Shakespeare before Sir 
Thomas Lucy for deer-stealing. 

Henry Wriothesly, to whom Shakespeare dedi- 
cated "the first heir of his invention," was the 
grandson of a common-law lawyer, who was lord 
chancellor from 1544 to 1547. 

The relations of the most dramatic profession of 



56 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

real life to that which mimics life was then much 
like the construction of the amphitheater of Curio,, 
which was elliptical, but built in equal sections^ 
which could be revolved so that each became a. 
theater, displaying a different spectacle, but could 
be turned in a moment into the unity of the original 
shape, and confuse two representations and two au- 
diences. The inns of court were the scenes of spec- 
tacular dramas of great magnificence, the expenses 
of which were borne by the lawyers. These revels, 
as they were called, laid the best dramatic genius, 
under contribution, and, though they have long 
since ended, the ancient sympathy has survived the 
insubstantial pageants and the actors, which have 
melted into thin air. 

It is not difficult to account for this intimacy. 
The dramatists of that time were unquestionably 
the most brilliant men who ever lived together in. 
one city. Intellectual society was limited. The 
physicians have left no memorials. The stage was 
abhorred by the clergy. The editor was yet to come.. 
But there was the bar, whose members knew life 
and human nature as they are, and who played 
their parts in all their real comedies and trage- 



THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 57 

dies; university men, ripe and sweet with all clas- 
sical learning, cynical and humorous, tainted with 
no cant. The taverns were the clubs. And thus 
it was that the most cultivated scholarship and the 
most brilliant imaginations of England met in en- 
counters, which kindled into conflagrations of wit,, 
humor, learning, ribaldry, and wisdom. 

There was everything in that romantic age to 
stir the imagination. There was a spirit of chiv- 
alry abroad which marched in quest of something 
more substantial than mouldy relics, and fulfilled 
vows sworn to something grander than the achieve- 
ment of pious absurdities. Frobisher had sailed 
northward into the silence of the eternal seas of 
ice. El Dorado lifted against the western skies its. 
shafts and domes of gold. The Armada had van- 
ished like a portentous phantom, smitten by the 
valor of Englishmen, and chased far off into the Heb- 
ridean fogs by the waves of the exasperated sea, 
which fought for its island nursling. Hawkins, pi- 
rate and admiral, had thrown his fortune into the pit 
which threatened to swallow up his country, and had 
died under the displeasure of his stingy yet mag- 



58 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



nificent queen. Ealeigh, having seen his dreams 
of the new world die out, lay in the Tower, writing 
his history, doubtless smoking the consoling weed, 
while awaiting the end of so much bravery, so 
much rashness, and so many cares, in the summons 
of "eloquent, just, and mighty Death." Drake 
had spoiled the seas and the cities thereof. Cap- 
tain John Smith had told of great empires in the 
west, and their swarthy emperors. Mary, Queen 
of Scots, that changeful enchantress, as we see her 
now, — at one time the French lily, all sweet, and 
pure, and fragrant; and again the Scottish thistle, 
spinous and cruel to all who touched her, — had 
woven the cords of love into the chains of empire, 
and had pressed the cup of her sorceries to the lips 
of many men, until her own glorious head bowed to 
the loiif^- divorce of steel. 

History, among all the women who have been 
■crowned with the thorns of sorrow, presents no 
figure of which Shakespeare could have made so 
much. But what could any dramatist do for her 
in the life-time of Elizabeth, or in that of the pu- 
sillanimous and unfilial Sawney who succeeded her ? 

A reverend church had been subverted through- 



THE LAW IN .SUAKESPEAIIE. 59 



out the land, and beliefs and ceremonies, which its 
believers asserted to be as old as the apostles, were 
forbidden as crimes. 

Hooker, anticipating Locke, had declared that 
all governments exist by the consent of the gov- 
erned, "without which consent there were no rea- 
son that one should take on him to be lord or judge 
over another." Bacon, thinking that "the knowl- 
edge whereof the world is now possessed, especially 
that of nature, extendeth not to the magnitude 
of works," had declared that there should be "one 
method of cultivating the sciences and another of 
discovering them," and by this liat liberated exper- 
imental philosophy into the limitless fields in which 
it has since worked. There never was a time when 
so many causes confederated to stimulate the hu- 
man mind to the exhibition of its greatest powers 
in all departments, and the result was that the sol- 
dier became a historian, the divine a statesman, 
the statesman a philosopher, and the lawyer the 
first of poets. 



I 



THE LAW 



IN 



SHAKESPEARE 



Ifl-Q. 1. 

Now the condition. 
This king of Naples, being an enemy 
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit ; 
Whicli was, that he, in lieu o' the premises, 
Of homage, and I know not how much tribute, 
Should presently extirpate me and mine 
Out of the dukedom ; and confer fair Milan, 
With all the honours, on my brother. 

The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2. 

Premises. That part in the beginning of a 
deed in which are set forth the names of the parties, 
and in which are recited such deeds, agreements, or 
matters of fact as are necessary to explain the rea- 
sons upon which the contract then entered into is 
founded. (Bouv. Law Diet.) 

(See No. 178.) 

The words seem to be used here with legal exact- 
ness, and the meaning is that in lieu of the prem- 
(61) 



02 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

ises, which are agreements for homage and tribute 
which the king was bound to render to Prospero, he 
should extirpate the latter from his dukedom and 
confer Milan upon the brother. 

Homage. (See Nos. 124, 273.) 
No. 2. 

Ay, ay ; and she hath olier'd to the doom 
Which, unreversed, stands in effectual force, 
A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears, 
Those at her father's churlish feet she tender'd. 

T)ic Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Doom. Judgment, judicial sentence. [John- 
son ; Webster.) 
(See Nos. 22, 249 ) 

This is the primary meaning. (See "doomster,"" 
Heart of Mid-Lothian, c. 24.) The word "unre- 
versed" is, in its connection with the word "doom," 
used in a strictly judicial sense. 

Tendered. (See No. 289.) 

No. 3. 

Besides, her intercession chafed him so. 
When she for thy repeal was suppliant. 

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 3, Scene I. 

Repeal. Recall from exile. [Johnson.) 

(See Nos. iJO, 205.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 63 

Valentine had been banished and the supplica- 
tions of Sylvia were for his "repeal." Byron has 
used the word in the same sense : 

*' that deep gulf without repeal." 

The Prophecy of Dante, Canto 1. 

No. 4. 

Shal. Sir Hugh, persuade me not ; I will make a Star-Cham- 
ber matter of it ; if he were twenty Sir John Falstatts, he 
shall not abuse Robert Shallow, Esquire. 

Sleti. In the county of Gloster, justice of peace, and Coram. 

,ShaL Ay, cousin Slender, and Cuntalorum. 

Slen. Ay, and Rdto-loruiii too ; and a gentleman born, mas- 
ter parson; who writes himself Arniigero; in any bill, war- 
rant, quittance, or obligation, Armigero. 

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Justice Shallow threatens to have Falstaff pun- 
ished for contempt, and this was, as in the chancery, 
a mode of procedure in the Star Chamber. (3 Bl. 
Comm. marg. p. 4^4.) It punished any disrespect 
to any acts of state, or to the person of statesmen. 
{Clarendon.) Also for scandalous reports of persons 
in power, (i Hallanis Const. Hist. 67.) 

Coram. In presence of; before. (Bouv. Law 
Diet.) 

Shakespeare here shows his exact knowledge by 
playing upon a technical word, for Slender un- 
doubtedly means that Shallow is a justice of the 
quorum^ another legal word applicable to justices of 



64 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

the peace. The justices of the peace were appointed 
in each county by special commission under the 
great seal, the form of which was settled by all the 
judges in the year 1590. The commission required 
them all jointly and severally to keep the peace ; 
and any two or more of them to inquire of and deter- 
mine felonies and misdemeanors, in which number 
some particular justices,- or one of them, were di- 
rected to be always included, (were of the quorum,) 
and no business could be done without their pres- 
ence ; the commission running thus: Quorum all- 
quern vestrum — unum esse volumus. 

There is the same perversion in the word Cust- 
alorum. Custos rotulorum is the word which Shallow 
attempts, and which Slender fails to give correctly. 
The custos rotulorum was the principal justice of the 
peace in the county, and keeper of the records of 
the county. The idea of the interlocutors is to ex- 
alt Shallow's official dignity, so that Falstaff's con- 
tempt of it may authorize them, in their simplicity, 
to think it a Star-Chamber matter. 

Armigero. Esquire. 

Bill. A common engagement for money given 
to another. A single bond without a condition. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 65 

Formerly it was all one with an obligation, save 
only its being called a bill when in English, and 
an obligation when in Latin. 

Warrant. A precept under hand and seal to 
fiome officer. 

(SeeNos. 110, 114.) 

Acquittance. A discharge in writing of a 
sum of money or a debt due. 

(See Nos. 45, 274.) 

Obligation. A bond containing a penalty with 
a condition annexed. It differs from a bill, which 
is generally without a penalty or condition, although 
a bill may be obligatory. (Tomlins Law Diet.) 

(See No. 158.) 

No. 5. 

Wh}', I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting 

down of men. 

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 2, Scene 1 . 

Exhibit. To offer or propose in a formal or 
public manner. (Johnson.) 

. Bill. (See No. 142.) 

He suffered his attorney general to exhibit a 
charge of high treason against this earl. (Claren- 
don.) 

Formerly all bills were drawn in the form of peti- 
tions, which were entered on the parliament rolls 
5 



66 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

with the king's answer subjoined. {Tomlin's Law 
Diet., Parliament.) 

Where the phrase "introduce a bill" would now 
be used, it was then correct to say, "exhibit a bill 
or petition." 

No. 6. 

The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scared out of him ; if the 
devil have liim not in fee-simple, with fine and recover}^ he- 
will never, 1 think, in the way of waste, attempt us again. 

Tfie. Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 4, Scene 2 

Fee-simple. Tenant in fee-simple is he who- 
has land and tenements to hold to him, and his. 
heirs and assigns, forever. (Littleton.) 

(See Nos. 63, 159, 247, 312.) 

Fine and recovery. Fine — An instrument 
of record of an agreement concerning lands, tene- 
ments, and hereditaments, duly made by the king's 
license, and acknowledged by the parties to the 
same, upon a writ of covenant, writ of right, or 
such like, before the justices of the common pleas, 
or others thereunto authorized, and engrossed of 
record in the same court; to end all controversies 
thereof, both between thamselves, which be parties 
and privies to the same, and all strangers not su- 
ing or claiming in due time. (SJiep. Touchst. c. 3.) 

The recovery was a judgment in a fictitious suit. 
A conveyance by fine and recovery barred all the 
world. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 67 

The meaning of the merry wife is that the devil 
has acquired an absolute title to Falstaff by a pro- 
ceeding barring everybody, in remainder, rever- 
sion, or entail, which was the operation of a fine 
and recovery. 

(See Nos. 63, 85, 276.) 

Waste. A spoil or destruction in houses, gar- 
dens, trees, or other corporeal hereditaments, to 
the disherison of him that hath the remainder or 
reversion in fee-simple or fee-tail. {2 BL Comm, 
marg. p. 281.) 

No. 7. 

You orphan heirs of fixed destin\% 
Attend your office, and your quality. 
Crier Hobgoblin, make the fair^^ o-yes. 

yierry Wives of \Yindsor, Act 5, Scene 5. 

0-yes. Hear ye! Immediately before he makes 
proclamation the crier of the court cries, Oyez, oyez, 
which is generally corruptly pronounced o-yes. 
(Bouv. Lajv Diet.) 

(See No. 194.) 

No. 8. 

Go thou and seek the coroner, and let him sit o' my coz : 
for he's in the third degree of drink, he's drowned ; 2^0, look 
after him. 

Ttcelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. 



6S TPIE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 9. 

Has been told so : and he says, he'll stand at j'our door like 
a sheriff's post, and be the supporter of a bench, but he'll 
speak with you. 

T%06lfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5. 

(See No. 239.) 

No. 10. 

Fab. I will prove it legitimate, sir, upon the oaths of judg- 
ment and reason. 

Sir To. And they have been grand jury-men since before 
Noah was a sailor. 

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 2. 

No. 11. 

First Off. This is the man ; do thy office. 
Sec. Off\ Antonio, I arrest thee at the suit 
Of count Orsino. 

Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 4. 

Arrest. (See Nos. 17, 86, 87, 137, 138, 277fl, 
295, 300.) 

No. 12. 

Nay, let him alone, I'll go another way to work Avith him ; 
I'll have an action of battery against him, if there be any law 
in Illyria : though I struck him first, yet it's no matter for 

that. 

Txoelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Action of battery. (See Nos. 12, 20, 276.) 

No. 13. 

Thou shalt be both the plaintiff' and the judge of thine own 
cause. 

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1. 

Plaintiff. (See No. 39.) 

Cause. (See Nos. 60, 149, 184, 200, 277a.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 69 

No. 14. 

A contract of eternal bond of love, 
Confirmd by mutual joinder of your hands, 
Attested by the holy close of lips, 
Strengthen'd b}' interchangement of 3'our rings ; 
And all the ceremon}^ of this compact 
Seal'd in my function, by my testimon3\ 

Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scent 1. 

Confirmed. (See Nos. 185, 238.) 

No. 15. 

Claud. Thus stands it with me : upon a true contract, 
1 got possession of Julietta's bed ; 
You know the lady ; she is fast my wife, 
8ave that we do the denunciation lack 
Of outward order : this we came not to, 
Only for propagation of a dower 
Remaining in the cotter of her friends ; 
From whom we thought it meet to hide our love. 
Till time had made them for us. 

Measure for Measure, Act 1, Scene 2. 

The common law considered marriage solely as a 
civil contract, requiring no ecclesiastical ceremony 
or sanction. It was valid in all cases where the 
parties were willing and able to and actually did 
contract. Any such contract made per verba de 
presenti, or in words in the present tense, and, in 
case cohabitation followed, per verba de futuro, was 
a valid marriage. (Bl. Comm. marg. pp, 435, 439,) 

The word dower is used for the word dowry, which 



70 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

was that which the wife brings her husband in 
marriage, otherwise called maritagium or marriage 
goods. The word is often confounded with dower, 
though it has a different meaning. (TomlirCs Law 
Diet.) 

In the Collier folio of 1632 the word is "procura- 
tion," instead of "propagation." It is evident that 
this marriage was per verba de futuro. Upon such 
a contract Claudio got possession of Isabella's bed. 
Such a marriage to be valid must be followed by 
consummation of this character. Nothing is want- 
ing in Claudio's statement of the facts to make out 
a case of valid marriage. 

The words "true contract" are doubtless a cor- 
ruption in the text. Pre-co7itraet should be substi- 
tuted, and this is the word employed in Measure 
for Measure. (See No. 29.) The employment of 
this phrase of antecedence shows that the distinc- 
tion between marriage per verba de pre sent i and 
that per verba de faturo was plainly drawn in 
Shakespeare's mind. 

(See No. 82.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 71 



l^o. 16. 

We have strict statutes, and most biting laws, 

The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds, 

Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep, 

Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave, 

That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers 

Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, 

Only to stick it in their children's sight. 

For terror, not to use, in time the rod 

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd : so our decrees, 

Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead ; 

And liberty plucks justice by the nose ; 

The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart 

Goes all decorum. 

Measure for Measure, Act 1, /Scene 3. 

mo. 17. 

He (to give fear to use and liberty, 
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law. 
As mice by lions,) hath pick'd out an act, 
Under whose heavy sense yonv brother's life 
Falls into forfeit : he arrests him on it ; 
And follows close the rigour of the statute, 
To make him an example : all hope is gone, 
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer 
To soften Angelo. 

Measure for Measure, Act 1, Scene 4. 

Arrest. (See Nos. 11, 86, 87, 137, 138, 277a, 
•295, 300. 

Forfeit. (See Nos. 25, 52, 56, 259, 306.) 

3^o. 18. 

'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, 
Another thing to fall. I not deny, 



72 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, 

May, in the sworn twelve, harve a thief or two 

Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice, 

That justice seizes: what know the laws. 

That thieves do pass on thieves ? 

Measure for Measure, Ace 2, Scene 1. 

The phraseology here is legal. An "act" has- 
been picked out under which a life has "fallen into- 
forfeit;" an "arrest" is made on it. The rigour of 
the "statute" is followed. The jury, in "passing 
on the prisoner's life," is a "sworn twelve," and 
"thieves may pass on thieves." 

No. 19. 

Elb. Come, bring them awa}'^ : if these be good people in a. 
commonweal, that do nothing but use their abuses in com- 
mon houses. 1 know no law; bring them away. 

Ang. How now, sir! what's your name? and what's the 
matter ? 

Elb. If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's consta- 
ble, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and 
do bring in here before your good honour two notorious ben- 
efactors. 

Arif/. Benefactors? Well; what benefactors arc they ? are 
the}' not malefactors ? 

Mb. If it please your honour, I know not well what they 
are : but precise villains they are, that I am sure of ; and void 
of all profanation in the world, that good Christians ought to 
have. 

Escal. This comes oft" well ; here's a wise officer. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 7^ 

Elbow brings before "his honour" two notorious- 
"benefactors," as he calls them; "malefactors," 
according to the correction of Angelo. Such per- 
version of terms occurs often, and is noticed in 
more striking instances. 

Malefactors. (See No. 38.) 

No. 20. 

Elb. First, an' it like you, the house is a respected house;, 
next, this is a respected fellow ; and his mistress is a respected 
woman. 

do. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person 
than any of us all. 

Elb. Varlet, thou liest ; thou liest, wicked varlet : the time 
is yet to come that she was ever respected with man, woman,, 
or child. 

Clo. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with 
her. 

Eiical. AVhich is the wiser here ? Justice or Iniquity ? Is- 
this true ? 

Elb. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Han- 
nibal ! I respected with her, before I was married to her ? 
If ever I was respected with her, or she with me, let not your 
worship think me the poor duke's officer. Prove this, thou 
wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action of battery on thee. 

Escal. If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your 
action of slander too. 

Elb. Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't 
your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff? 

Escal. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him, 
that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue 
in his courses, till thou knowest what the}- are. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1. 



74 THE LAW IN SnAKESPEARE. 

There is here in the use of the word "respected" 
for "suspected," the same kind of perversion noted 
in No. 19 and elsewhere. 

Elbow threatens an "action of battery" for a 
slander, and Escalus suggests in pleasantry that 
he may e converso have an action of slander for a 
battery. 

(See Nos. 12, 276.) 

No. 21. 

Seri). He's hearing of a cause ; he will come straight. 
I'll tell him of you. 

Measure for- Measure, Act 2, Scene 2. 

Cause. A contested question before a court of 
justice. {Bouv. Law Diet.) 

"Hearing a cause" is the precise phrase to be 
used here. 

No. 22. 

Under your good correction, I have seen, 
When, after execution, judgment hath 
Repented o'er his doom. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2. 

Execution. (See Nos. 231, 91.) 
Doom. (See Nos. 2, 249.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 75 

No. 23. 

Condemn the fault and not the actor of it ! 
Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done : 
Mine were the ver}^ cipher of a function, 
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record, 
But let go by the actor. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2. 

This is a very exact application of a legal con- 
ception. The meaning is that the criminal has 
been convicted, and the judgment record against 
him made up, and that mere abstract condemna- 
tion of the fault, while pardoning the convicted 
offender, makes the power of the ruler a cipher. 

Fine. (See Nos. 56, 248.) 

No. 24. 

\Vell, believe this, 
No ceremon}' that to great ones "longs, 
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword. 
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, 
Become them with one half so good a grace 
As mercy does. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2, 

Mercy. (See Nos. 25, 48, 56.) 



76 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 25. 

Aug. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, 
And you but waste your words. 

Isab. Alas, alas! 

Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once ; 
And He that might the vantage best have took, 
Found out the remedy. How would you be. 
If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
But judge you as you are ? O, think on that ; 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips, 
Like man new made. 

Ang. Be you content, fair maid; 

It is the law, not I, condemns your brother; 
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son. 
It should be thus with him : he must die to-morrow. 

Isab. To-morrow ! O, that's sudden ! Spare him, spare him I 
He's not prepared for death ! Even for our kitchens 
We kill the fowl of season ; shall we serve heaven 
With less respect than we do minister 
To our gross selves ? Good, good my lord, bethink you : 
Who is it that hath died for this offence ? 
There's many have committed it. 

Lucio. Ay, well said. 

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept : 
Those many had not dared to do that evil. 
If the first man that did the edict infringe. 
Had answer'd for his deed ; now, 'tis awake ; 
Takes note of what is done ; and like a prophet. 
Looks in a glass that shows what future evils 
Either new, or by remissness new-conceived, 
And so in progress to be hatch'd and born. 
Are now to have no successive degrees. 
But, ere they live, to end. 

Jsab. Yet show some pity. 

Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice ; 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 77 

For then 1 pity those I do not know, 

"Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall ; 

And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong, 

Lives not to act another. Be satisfied ; 

Your brother dies to-morrow ; be content. 

Isab. So you must be the first that gives this sentence ; 
And he, that suffers : O, it is excellent 
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous 
To use it like a giant. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2. 

Edict. (See Nos. 135, 170, 232.) 
Forfeit. (See Nos. IT, 52, 56, 259, 306.) 
Mercy. (See Nos. 24, 48, 56.) 

No. 26. 

Thieves for their robbery have authorit}', 
When judges steal themselves. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2. 

mo, 27. 

I'll teach 3-0U how you shall arraign you conscience, 
And tr}'^ your penitence, if it be sound. 

Or hollowly put on. 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Arraign. To call a man to answer in form of 
law. A prisoner is arraigned when he is indicted 
and brought to trial. [Tomliiis Laiv Diet.) 

(See Nos. 78, 79, 239, 286.) 



No. 28. 



Must die to-morrowM O, injurious love, 
That respites me a life, whose very comfort 
Is still a dying horror ! 

Measure for Measure, Act 2, S~ene 3. 



78 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Respite. Reprieve; suspension of a capital 
sentence. 

(See No. 232.) 

No. 29. 

Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. 
He is your husband on a pre-contract: 
To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin, 
Sitli that the justice of your title to kim 
Doth flourish the deceit. 

Measure for Measure, Act 4, Scene 1. 

As noted in No. 15, the use here of the word 
pre-contract in relation to this marriage per verba 
de futurOf followed by consummation, shows accu- 
rate legal knowledge by Shakespeare of the requi- 
sites of marriage, which at common law were by 
mere civil forms of contract, and, in case of mar- 
riages per verba de faturo, performance of the con- 
tract by consummation, (siibsequente copula.) 

The duke correctly advises Mariana that the 
proposed consummation will be no sin. 

(SeeNos. 15, 82.) 

No. 30. 

1 hope it is some pardon or reprieve, 
For the most gentle Claudio. 

Measure for Measure, Act 4, Scene 2. 

Pardon. The remitting or forgiving of an of- 
fense committed against the king. {Tomlins Law 
Diet.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 7^ 

The words ''respite," "reprieve," "countermand," 
and "pardon" are used in this play in the most ac- 
curate technical sense. 

Reprieve. (See Nos. 32, 242.) 

No. 31. 

Have 3'Ou no countermand for Claudio yet, 
But he must die to-morrow ? 

Measure for Measure, Act 4, Scene 2. 

Countermand. Is where a thing formerly 
executed is afterwards, by some act or ceremony, 
made void by the party that first did it. (Tomliiis 
Law. Diet.) 

The word signifies a change of orders which have 
been given. (Boiiv. Law Diet.) 

Shakespeare has here, and in Nos. 28, 30, and 
32, exhausted the powers of legal terms on the sub^ 
ject of the hope of criminals whose only hope is in 
the exercise of the prerogative of mercy. 

No. 32. 

His friends still wrought reprieves for him. 

Measure for Measure, Act 4, Scene 2, 

Reprieves. (See Nos. 30, 242.) 



80 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 33. 

M3' business in this state 
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna, 
Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble, 
Till it o'er-run the stew : laws, for all faults ; 
But faults so countenanc'd that the strong statutes 
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, 
As much in mock as mark. 

Measure for Measure, Act 5, Scene 1. 

No. 34. 

Dogb. Are you good men and true ? 

Verg. Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer sal- 
tation, body and soul. 

Dogb. Nay, that were a punishment too good for them, if 
they should have anj- allegiance in them, being chosen for the 
prince's watch. 

Verg. Well, give them their charge, neighbor Dogberry. 

Dogb. First, who think 3'ou the most dcsartless man to be 
•constable. 

1 WatcJi. Hugh Oatcake, sir, or George Seacole ; for they 
can write and read. 

Dogb. Come hither, neighbor Seacole. God hath blessed 
you with a good name ; to be a well-favoured man is the gift 
■of fortune ; but to write and read comes by nature. 

2 WatcJi. Both which, master constable, 

Dogb. You have ; I knew it would be your answer. Well, 
for your favor, sir, why, give God thanks, and make no boast 
•of it ; and for your writing and reading, let that appear when 
there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be 
the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch ; 
therefore bear you the lantern : this is your charge ; you shall 
-comprehend all vagrom men : you are to bid any man stand, 
in the prince's name. 

2 Watch. How if a' will not stand ? 

Dogb. Why then, take no note of him, but let him go ; and 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 81 

present!}^ call the rest of the watch together, and thank God 
you are rid of a knave. 

Verg. If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of 
the prince's subjects. 

Dogb. True, and they are to meddle with none but the 
prince's subjects : — 3'ou shall also make no noise m the streets ; 
for, for the watch to babble and talk, is most tolerable, and 
not to be endured. 

2 Watch. We will rather sleep than talk ; we know what 
belongs to a watch. 

JJogb. Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet 
watchman; for I cannot see how sleeping should offend: only, 
have a care that your bills be not stolen : — Well, you are to 
call at all the ale-houses, and bid those that are drunk get 
them to bed. 

2 Watch. How if they will not? 

Dogb. Why then, let them alone till they are sober; if they 
make you not then the better answer, you ma}^ say, they are 
not the men you took them for. 

2 Watch. Well, sir. 

Dogb. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, b}-^ virtue 
of your oflice, to be no true man : and, for such kind of men, 
the less you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for 
your honesty. 

2 Watch. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay 
hands on him ? 

Dogb. Truly, by your office, you may : but I think, they that 
touch pitch will be defiled : the most peaceable way for you 
if 3^ou do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is, 
and steal out of 3'our company. 

Verg. You have been always called a merciful man, partner. 

Dogb. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will ; much 
more a man who hath any honest}^ in him. 

Verg. If you hear a child cr\^ in the night, you must call to 
the nurse, and bid her still it. 
6 



82 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

2 Watch. How if the nurse be asleep, and will not hear us ? 

Dogb. Why, then, depart in peace, and let the child wake 
her with crying : for the ewe that will not hear her lamb 
when it baes, will never answer a calf when he bleats. 

Verg. 'Tis very true. 

Dogb. This is the end of the charge. You, constable, are 
to present the prince's own person ; if you meet the prince in 
the night you may stay him. 

Verg. Na3% by'r lady, that I think a' cannot. 

Dogb. Five shillings to one on't, with any man that knows 
the statues, he may sta}- him : marr}^ not without the prince 
be willing : for, indeed, the watch ought to olfend no man ; 
and it is an offence to stay a man against his will. 

Verg. By'r lady, I think, it be so. 

Dogb. Ha, ha, ha ! Well, masters, good night : an there be 
any matter of weight chances, call up me : keep your fellows' 
counsels and your own, and good night. — Come, neighbour. 

2 Watch. Well, masters, we hear our charge : let us go sit 
here upon the church-bench till two, and then all to bed. 

Dogb. One word more, honest neighbours : I pray you, 
watch about signior Leonato's door ; for the wedding being 
there to-morrow, there is a great coil to-night: adieu, be vig- 
ilant, 1 beseech you. 

Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3, Scene 3. 

No. 35. 

We are like to prove a goodly commodity, being taken up 
of these men's bills. 

Much Ado About Nothing., Act 3, Scene 3. 

No. 36. 

Dogb. One word, sir; our watch, sir, have, indeed, com- 
prehended two aspicious persons, and we would have them 
this morning examined before your worship. 

Leon. Take their examination yourself, and bring it me; 
I am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 83 

Dogb. It shall be sufflgance. 

Leon. Drink some wine ere yon go ; fare 3'ou well. 
Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to 
her husband. 

Leon. I will wait upon them ; I am ready. 

[E,veunt Leonato and Messenger. 

Dogb. Go, good partner, go ; get you to Francis Seacole, 
bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the gaol; we are now 
to examination these men. 

Verg. And we must do it wisely. 

Dogb. We will spare for no wit, I warrant 3^ou ; here's that 
shall drive some of them to a non com: only get the learned 
writer to set down our excommunication, and meet me at the 
gaol. 

Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3, Scene 5. 

Examine. (See Nos. 38, 61.) 
No. 37. 

Trust not my reading, nor my observations, 
Which with experimental seal doth warrant 
The tenor of my book ; trust not my age, 
My reverence, calling, nor divinity. 
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here 
Under some biting error. 

Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Seal. (See Nos. 52, 56, 108, 126, 158, 204, 
207, 256, 274, 288.) 

Tenor. (See Nos. 56, 189, 223, 232.) 



84 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 38. 

Dogb. Is our whole dissembly appeared ? 

Verg. O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton ! 

Sex. Which be the malefactors ? 

Dogb. Marry, that am I and my partner; 

Verg. ISaj', that's certain; we have the exhibition to ex- 
amine. 

Sex. But which are the offenders that are to be examined ? 
Let them come before master constable. 

Dogb. Yea, marry, let them come before me. — What is your 
name, friend ? 

jHora. Borachio. 

Dogb. Pra}^ write down — Borachio. Yours, sirrah? 

Con. I am a gentleman, sir, and ni}^ name is Conrade. 

Dogb. Write down — master gentleman Conrade. — Masters, 
do you serve God ? 

Con. Bora. Y^ea, sir, we hope. 

Dogb. Write down — that they hope they serve God :— and 
write God first ; for God defend but God should go before such 
villains! — Masters, it is proved already that you are little bet- 
ter than false knaves ; and it will go near to be thought so 
shortly. How answer 3'ou for yourselves ? 

Con. Marry, sir, we say we are none. 

Dogb. A marvellous witty fellow, 1 assure you ; but I will 
go about witJihim. — Come you hither, sirrah ; a word in your 
ear, sir ; I say to you, it is thought you are false knaves. 

Bora. Sir, I say to you, we are none. 
T Dogh. Well, stand aside. — 'Fore God, they are both in a 
tale : have you writ down— that they are none ? 

Sex. Master constable, you go not the way to examine ; j^ou 
must call forth the watch that are their accusers. 

Dogb. Y^ea, marry, that's the eftest way : — Let the watch 
come forth : — Masters, I charge you, in the prince's name, ac- 
cuse these men. 

1 Watch. This man said, sir, that Don John, the prince's 
brother, was a villain. 



THE J.AW IN SHAKESPEARE. 85 



Dogh. Write down — prince John a villian : — Why this is 
flat perjury, to call a prince's brother — villain. 

Bora. Master constable, — 

Dogb. Pray thee, fellow, peace ; I do not like thy look, I 
promise thee. 

Sex. What heard you him say else ? 

2 Watch. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of 
Don John, for accusing the lady Hero wrongfully. 

Dogh. Flat burglary, as ever was committed. 

Verg. Yea, by the mass, that it is. 

Sex. What else, fellow ? 

1 W'ltch. And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, 
to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry 
her. 

Dogb. O villian ! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting 
redemption for this. 
Sex. What else ? 

2 Watch. This is all. 

Sex. And this is more, masters, than you can deny. Prince 
John is this morning secretly stolen away ; Hero was in this 
manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the 
grief of this, suddenly died. — Master constable, let these men 
be bound, and brought to Leonato's ; 1 will go before, and 
show him their examination. [Exit. 

Dogb. Come, let them be opinioned. 

Verg. Let them be in band I 

Con. Otf, coxcomb ! 

Dogb. God's my life! where's the sexton? let him write 
down — the prince's officer, coxcomb. — Come, bind them: — 
Thou naughty varlet ! 

Con. Away ! you are an ass, yon are an ass! 

Dogb. Dost thou not suspect mj' place ? Dost thou not sus- 
pect my years ? — O that he were here to write me down — an 
ass ! — but, masters, remember that I am an ass ; though it be 
not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass : — No, then 



86 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by 
good witness. I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an 
officer ; and, which is more, a householder ; and, which is more, 
as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina; and one that 
knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to ; and 
a fellow that hath had losses ; and one that hath two gowns, 
and ever\^thing handsome about him : — Bring him away. O, 
that I had been writ down — an ass. 

Much Ado About Nothing^, Act 4, Scene 2. 

Examine. (See Nos. 36, 61.) 
Malefactors. (See No. 19.) 
Perjury. (See No. 149.) 

No. 39. 

Bogb. Come, you sir ; if justice cannot tame 3'ou, she shall 
ne'er weigh more reasons in her balance ; nay, an you be a 
cursing hypocrite once, you must be looked to. 

D. Pedro. How now, two of my brothers men bound ! 
Borachio, one I 

Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord ! 

1). Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done ? 

Dogb. Marry, sir, they have committed false report ; more- 
over, they have spoken untruths ; secondarily, they are slan- 
ders ; sixth and lastly, the\' have belied a lady ; thirdly, they 
have verified unjust things ; and, to conclude, they are lying 
knaves. 

D. Pedro. First, I ask thee what they have done : thirdly, 
1 ask thee what's their offence ; sixth and lastly, why they 
are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their 
charge ? 

Claud, nightly reasoned, and in his own division ; and, by 
m}^ troth, there's one meaning well suited. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 87 



D. Pedro. AYliom have you offended, masters, that you are 
thus bound to your answer ? This learned constable is too 
cunning to be understood : What's your offence ? 

*■ * * * ^ * iff- 

Dogh. Come, bring away the plaintiffs; by this time our 
sexton hath reformed signior Leonato of the matter ; and 
masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall 
serve, that I am an ass. 

******* 

Dogh. Moreover, sir, (which, indeed, is not under white and 
black,) this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me ass : I 
beseech you, let it be remembered in his punishment : and 
^Iso, the watch heard them talk of one Deformed : they say, 
he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it, and bor- 
rows money in God's name ; the which he hath used so long, 
and never paid, that now men grow hard-hearted, and will 
lend nothing for God's sake : pra}' 3 ou, examine him upon 
that point. 

Leon. I thank thee for thv care and honest pains. 

Dogb. Your worship speaks like a most thankful and rever- 
end youth ; and I praise God for you. 

Leon. There's for thy pains. 

Dogb. God save the foundation ! 

Leon. Go, 1 discharge thee of tli}- prisoner, and 1 thank 
thee. 

Dogb. I leave an arrant knave with your worship ; which, 
I beseech your worship, to correct yourself, for the example 
of others. God keep your worship ; I wish your worship 
well ; God restore you to health : 1 humbly give you leave to 
■depart ; and if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit 
it. — Come, neighbour. 

Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, Scent 1. 



Plaintiff. (See No. 13.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 40. 

The. But, oh, methinks, how slow 

This old moon wanes ! she lingers my desires, 
Like to a step-dame, or a dowager, 
Long withering out a 3^oung man's revenue. 
****** 
Either to die the death, or to abjure 
Forever the societ3'^ of men. 

****** 

Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,. 
Ere 1 will yield my virgin patent up 
Unto his lordship, whose unwislied yoke 
M}^ soul consents not to give sovereignty. 

The. The sealing-day betwixt my love and me^ 
For everlasting bond of fellowship. 

****** 

Dem. And, Lysander, yield 

Thy crazed title to my certain right 

****** 

E(je. Scornful Lysander ! true, he hath my love ; 
And what is mine my love shall render him : 
And she is mine ; and all my right of her 
1 do estate unto Demetrius. 

Lys. 1 am my lord, as well deriv'd as he, 
****** 
Why should not 1 then prosecute my right? 
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head, 
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, 
And won her soul. 

****** 

Her. If then true lovers have been cross'd, 
It stands as an edict in destiny. 

A Midsummer-Night'' 8 Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Abjure. (See No. 103.) 

Bond. (See Nos. 51, 52, 56, 99, 131, 306. 



I 



THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 89 



Avouch. (See Nos. 106, 258.) 

The first scene of A Midsummer-Night's Dream 
abounds in legal phraseology. The waning moon ia 
a "dowager" who is a "widow endowed." {Tomliris 
Laic Diet.) She keeps the young long out of their 
revenue. Hermia is condemned to "abjure" the 
society of men. Her "virgin patent" is in question; 
a "sealing day" is fixed for an everlasting "bond;" 
the title of Lysander to Hermia is a "crazed one;" 
Egeus, the father, "estates unto" Demetrius "all 
his right" of Hermia. Lysander asserts that he ia 
as well "derived" as Demetrius, and questions why 
he shall not "prosecute" his "right," and proposes 
to "avouch" his charge against Demetrius. 

The crossing of true lovers stands as "an edict" 
in destiny. Here is not an instance of the occa- 
sional use of a legal term mingled with untechnical 
language, nor is there any use of untechnical equiva- 
lents. Throughout the scene^ which is in the form 
of a trial, the parties are summoned to "stand 
forth," and they plead their cause in the language 
of forensic discussion. 



90 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 41. 

What liast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite, 
And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight, 
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue 
Some true-love turn'd and not a false turn'd true. 

A Midsumner- Night' s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. 

Misprision. A neglect — oversight. {Tomlins 
Law Diet.) 

This is the primary legal meaning of this word, 
though it is also a general word for all such high 
offenses as are under the degree of capital, but 
nearly bordering thereon. It is here used in its 
primary sense. The love-juice has been laid on 
true-love's sight by mistake. 

No. 42. 

You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, 

Have sworn for three years' term to live with me, 

My fellow scholars, and to keep those statutes 

That are recorded in this schedule here. 

Your oaths are passed, and now subscribe your name. 

Lovers Labour's Lost, Act 1, Scene 1- 

Term. A limitation of time — estate. (Toju- 
lin's Laiv Diet.) (See No. 43.) 

In these four lines, "statutes" "recorded" in a 
^'schedule" are to be kept for a "term," and "oaths" 
which are "passed" so to do are to be "subscribed." 



Statutes. (See No. 198.) 



THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 91 

No. 43. 

But there are other strict observances : 
As not to see a woman in that term ; 
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there : 
And, o:ie day in a week to touch no food ; 
And but one meal on every day beside : 
The which, I hope, is not enrolled there : 
And then, to sleep but three hours in the night, 
And not be seen to wink of all the day — 
When I was wont to think no harm all night. 
And make a dark night too of half the day — 
Which, 1 hope well, is not enrolled there. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act 1, Scene 1. 

The word "term" again occurs, and the word 
"enrolled" is used three times in the sense of an 
enrolled statute or record. It is peculiarly a term 
of art. The untechnical words are "written," "in- 
scribed." 

Enrolled. (See No. 20C).) 

No. 43a. 

Why all delights are vain; but that most vain. 
Which with pain purchased doth inherit pain. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act 1, Scene 1. 

As to the distinction between estates by inherit- 
ance and those by purchase, see No. 213. 

No. 44. 

So to the laws at large I write my name, 
And he that breaks them in the least degree 
Stands in attainder of eternal shame. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act 1, Scene 1. 



92 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Attainder. A man is said to be attainted, 
(attinctus,) for that by his attainder of treason or 
felony his blood is so stained and corrupted, as, 
first, his children cannot be heirs to him, nor any 
ancestor through him. * * * If he were noble 
or gentle before, he and all his children and pos- 
terity are by this attainder made base and ignoble. 
* * * This corruption of blood is so high 
that it cannot be absolutely salved and taken away 
but by authority of parliament. {Co. Litt. 391b.) 
He is already dead in law. (3 Inst. 213.) 

(See No. 130.) 

No. 44a. 

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concernmg Jaquenetta. 
The manner of it is, I was taken with tlie manner. 

Biron. In what manner ? 

Cost. In manner and form following, sir : all those three : 
I was seen with her in the manor-house, sitting with her upon 
the form, and taken following her into the park: which put 
together is in manner and form following. Now, sir, for the 
manner, — it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman : 
for the form, — in some form. 

Biron. For the following, sir? 

Cost. As it shall follow in m}^ correction : and God defend 
the right. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Taken with the manner. (See No. 131a.) 

No. 45. 

frin. You do the king my father too much wrong, 
And wrong the reputation of your name, 
In so unseeming to confess receipt 
Of that which hath so faithfully been paid. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 93 



King. I do protest, I never lieard of it ; 
And, if 3'ou prove it, I'll repay it back, 
Or yield up Aquitaine. 

Prill. We arrest your word : 

Boyet, you can produce acquittances. 
For such a sum, from special officers 
Of Charles his father. 

Love''s Labour^s Lost, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Acquittances. (See Nos. 4, 274.) 

No. 46. 

Boyet. So please 3'our grace, the packet is not come. 
Where that and other specialties are bound, 
To-morrow you shall have a sight of them. 

Love''s Labour's Lost, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Specialties. A bond, bill, or such like instru- 
ment ; a writing or deed under the hand and seal 
of the parties. {Tomlins Law Diet.) 

(See No. 6Q.} 

No. 47. 

Boyet. So you grant pasture for me. [Offering to kiss her. 

Mar. Not so, gentle beast ; 

My lips are no common, though several they be. 

Boyet. Belonging to whom ? 

Mar. To my fortunes and me. 

Lovers Labour^s Lost, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Grant is at common law a conveyance of in- 
corporeal things. (Co. Liu. 9.) 

Common of pasture is a right of feeding one's 
beasts on another's lands. (^ BL Comm. marg, p. 
32.) 



94 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Several. He that holds lands or tenements in 
severalty, or is sole tenant thereof, is he that holds 
them in his own right only, without any person be- 
ing joined or connected with him in point of inter- 
est during his estate therein. [2 Bl. Comm. marg, 
p. 191.) 

Without a thorough knowledge of the legal terms 
employed, Maria's repartee is absolutely meaning- 
less. 

No. 48. 

Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men ; 
Or for men's sake, the authors of these women, 
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men, 
Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves, 
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths. 
It is religion to be thus forsworn, 
For charity itself fulfils the law, 
And who can sever love from charity ? 

Love''s Labour''s Lost, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Mercy. (See Nos. 24, 25, 56.) 

No. 49. 

My ventures are not in one botloni trusted. 

TVie Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1. 

(See No. 109.) ■ 

No. 50. 

That he hath a neighborly charity in him, for he borrowed 
a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay 
him again when he was able : I think the Frenchman became 
his surety and sealed under for another. 

The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 2. 



I 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 95- 

Surety. A person who binds himself for the 
payment of a sum of money, or for the performance 
of something else, for another who is already bound 
for the same. {Bouv. Laiv Diet.) 

(See No. 306.) 

No. 51. 

Sht/. 1 think I may take his bond. 
Bass. Be assured you may. 

>S7ii/. 1 will be assured 1 may; and, that I may be assured,. 
I will bethink me. 

The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3. 

Bassanio gives Shylock his personal assurance 
or opinion that he may take the bond. Shylock ia 
thinking of legal assurance, and so repeats the word 
''assured." 

•Assured. (See No. 301.) 

Bond. (See Nos. 40, 52, 56, 99, 131, 306.) 

No. 52. 

Sill/. This kindness will I show : — 

Go with me to a notar}^ seal me there 
Your single bond ; and, in a merry sport, 
If you repay me not on such a day, 
In such a place, such sum, or sums, as are 
Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit 
Be nominated for an equal pound 
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken 
In what part of your body pleaseth me. 

Ant. Content, i' faith : I'll seal to such a bond, 
And say there is much kindness in the Jew. 



■96 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



Bass. You shall not seal to sucli a bond for me ; 
I'll rather dwell in my necessity. 

Ant. Why, fear not, man ; 1 will not forfeit it ; 
Within these two months, that's a month before 
This bond expires, I do expect return 
Of thrice three times the value of this bond. 

Shy. O father Abram, what these Christians are ; 
Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect 
The thoughts of others ! Pray you, tell me this ; 
If he should break his day, what should I gain 
By the exaction of the forfeiture ? 

The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3. 

Notary. A person who takes notes or makes 
a short draft of contracts, obligations, or other 
writings or instruments. {27 Ed. Ill, st. 1, c. 1; 
Tomlins Law Diet.) 

Single bond. A bond without a condition. 
{Tomlins Laic Diet.) 

Seal. A seal is necessary to constitute a bond. 
Subscribing is not essential, sealing being sufficient. 
{Tomlins Law Diet.) 

(See Nos. 37, 52, 108, 126, 158, 204, 207, 256, 274, 288.) 

Forfeit, forfeiture. On failure of perform- 
ance of the condition the bond was, in legal phrase, 
forfeited. {Co. Litt. 208, 210, S40.) 

(See Nos. 17, 25, 56, 259, 306.) 

No. 53. 

The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. 
An evil soul producing holy witness. 
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek ; 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 97 

A goodly apple rotten at the heart ; 

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath ! 

The Mtrchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3. " 

In legal proceedings books of authority are "cited" 
and witnesses are "produced." 

I^o. 54. 

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, 
But, being season'd with a gracious voice, 
Obscures the show of evil ? 

The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 2. 

Plea. (See Nos. 294, 297, 298.) 
No. 55. 



see thou render this 



Unto my cousin's hand. Doctor Bellario. 

The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 4. 

Render. To yield; give again or return. 
(Tomliiis Law Diet.) 

Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. 

"Eendering and yielding as rent" is the phrase 

in leases. 

No. 56. 

Venice. A court of Justice. Enter the Duke, fhe Magnijlcoes ; 

Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano, Salarino, Si.lanio, and others. 

Duke. What,, is Antonio here ? 

Ant. Ready, so please your grace. 

Duke. I am sorry for thee ; thou art come to answer 
A stony adversary, an inhuman wrel( h 

7 



98 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



Uncapable of pity, void and empty 
From any dram of mercy. 

Ant. I have heard, 

Your grace hatli ta'eii great pains to qualify 
Plis rigorous course ; but since he stands obdurate 
And that no lawful means can carr}^ me 
Out of his envy's reach, 1 do oppose 
My patience to his fury ; and am arm'd 
To suffer, with a quietness of spirit, 
The very tyranny and rage of his 

Buke. Go one, and call the Jew into tlie court. 

Salan. He's ready at the door : he comes, my lord. 
Enter Shy lock. 

Duke. ]\Iake room, and let him stand before our face. 
iShylock, the world thinlcs, and 1 think so too. 
That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice 
To the last hour of act ; and then, 'tis thought 
Thou'lt show thy mercy, and remorse, more strange 
Than is thy strange apparent cruelty : 
And where thou now exact'st the penalty 
(Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,) 
Thou wilt not only lose the forfeiture. 
But touch'd with human gentleness and love, 
Forgive a moiety of the principal ; 
Glancing an eye of pity on his losses, 
That have of late so huddled on his back ; 
Enough to press a royal merchant down. 
And pluck commiseratioh of his state 
From brassy bosoms, and rough hearts of flint. 
From stubborn Turks, and Tarters, never trained 
To offices of tender courtes3^ 
We all expect a gentle answer, Jew. 

Shy. I have possess'd your grace of what 1 purpose ; 
And by our holy sabbath have I sworn, 
To have the due and forfeit of mv bond. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 99 



If 3"0u den\' it, let the danger light 

Upon your charter, and your cit3''s freedom. 

You'll ask me, why 1 rather clioose to have 

A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive 

Three thousand ducats : I'll not answer that : 

But, say, it is my humour ; Is it answerd ? 

What if ray house be troubled with a rat, 

And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats 

To have it baned ? What, are you answered yet ? 

Some men there are, love not a gaping pig ; 

Some, that are mad, if they behold a cat : 

And others, when the bag-pipe sings i' the nose, 

Cannot contain their urine ; For affection, 

Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood 

Of what it likes, or loatlis : Now, for your answer :. 

As there is no firm reason to be render'd, 

Wlw he cannot abide a gaping pig ; 

Why he, a harmless necessary cat ; 

Why he, a swollen bag- pipe ; but of force 

Must yield to such inevitable shame. 

As to offend, himself being offended : 

So can 1 give no reason, nor I will not, 

More than a lodged hate, and a certain loathing 

1 bear Antonio, that 1 follow thus 

A losing suit against him. Are you answer'd ? 

Bass. This is no answer, thou unfeeling man. 
To excuse the current of thy cruelt}'. 

S7iy. I am not bound to please thee with my answer. 

Bass. Do all men kill the things they do not love ^ 

Shy. Hates an}- man the thing he would not kill ? 

Bass. Ever}' offence is not a hate at first. 

S7it/. What, would'st thou have a serpent sting thee twice? 

Ant. 1 pray you, think you question with the Jew: 
You may as well go stand upon the beach. 
And bid the main flood bate his usual height : 



100 THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 

You may as well use question with the wolf, 
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb ; 
You may as well forbid the mountain pines 
To wag their high tops, and to make no noise, 
When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven ; 
You may as well do anything most hard, 
As seek to soften that (than which what's harder ?) 
His Jewish heart :— Therefore, I do beseech you, 
Make no more otters, use no further means, 
But, with all brief and plain conveniency, 
Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will. 

Bass. For thy three thousand ducats here is six. 

Shy. If every ducat in six thousand ducats 
Were in six parts, and every part a ducat, 
I would not draw them, 1 would have m}^ bond. 

Buke. How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none ? 

tihy. What judgment shall 1 dread, doing no wrong? 
You have among you many a purchased slave, 
Which, like your asses, and your dogs and mules, 
You use in abject and in slavish parts, 
Because you bought them: — Shall 1 say to you, 
Let them be free, marr}- them to your heirs ? 
Why sweat the}^ under burdens ? let their beds 
Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates 
Be season'd with such viands ? You will answer, 
The slaves are ours : — So do I answer you : 
The pound of flesh, which 1 demand of him, 
Is dearly bought, is mine, and 1 will have it : 
If you deny me, fie upon your law ! 
There is no force in the decrees of Venice : 
I stand for judgment : answer ; shall I have it ? 

Buke. Upon my power, I may dismiss this court, 
Unless Bellario, a learned doctor, 
Whom I have sent for to determine this, 
Come here to-day. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 101 



Salar. M\' lord, here stays without 

A messenger with letters from the doctor, 
New come from Padua. 

Duke. Bring us the letters; Call the messenger. 

Bass. Good cheer, Antonio ! What, man ? courage yai ! 
The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones, and all, 
Ere thou shait loose for me one drop of blood. 

Ant. i am a tainted wether of the flock, 
Meetest for death ; the weakest kind of fruit 
Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me : 
You cannot better be employed, Bassanio, 
Than to live still and write mine epitaph. 

Enter Nerissa, dressed like a lawyer's clerk. 

Duke. Came you from Padua, from Bellario ? 

Ner. From both, my lord : Bellario greets your grace. 

I Presents a letter. 

Bass. Why dost thou whet th}- knife so earnestly ? 

/^hy. To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there. 

Gra. Xot on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, 
Thou mak'st thy knife keen : but no metal can, 
No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness 
Of thy sharp env^^ Can no prayers pierce thee ? 

Shy. No, none that thou hast wit enough to make. 

Gra. O, be thou damn'd, inexorable dog ! 
And for thy life let justice be accused. 
Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith. 
To hold opinion with Pythagoras, 
That souls of animals infuse themselves 
Into the trunks of men : thy currish spirit 
Govern'd a w^olf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, 
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, 
And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, 
Infus'd itself in thee ; for thy desires 
Are wolfish, bloody, starvd, and ravenous. 

Shy. Till thou canst rail the seal from oil my bond, 



102 THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 



Thou but ottendst tli}- lungs to speak so loud ; 
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall 
To cureless ruin. — I stand here for law. 

Duke. This letter from Bellario doth commend 
A young and learned doctor to our court: — 
Where is he ? 

Ner. lie attendeth here hard by, 

To know your answer, whether you'll admit him. 

Duke. With all my heart ; — some three or four of you, 
Go give him courteous conduct to this place. — 
Meantime, the court shall hear Bellario's letter. 

[Clerk reads.] Your grace shall understand, that, at the 
receipt of your letter, 1 am very sick ; but in the instant that 
your messenger came, in loving visitation was with me a 
young doctor of Rome, his name is Balthazer ; I acquainted 
him with the cause in controversy between the Jew and An- 
tonio the merchant ; we turned o'er many books together; 
he is furnished with m}- opinion ; which, better'd with his 
own learning, (the greatness whereof I cannot enough com- 
mend,) comes with him, at mv importunit}', to fill up your 
grace's request in my stead. I beseech you let his lack of 
years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation, 
for I never knew so young a bod}' with so old a head. I leave 
him to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better 
publish his commendation. 

Duke. You hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes; 
And here, I take it, is the doctor come.— 

Enter Portia, dressed like a doctor of laws. 
Give me your hand : Came you from old Bellario ? 

Por. 1 did, my lord. 

Duke. Yoii are welcome : take your place. 

Are you acquainted with the difference 
That holds Uiis present question in the court ? 

Por. I am informed thoroughly of the cause. 
Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew? 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 103 



Duke. Antonio and old Shylock, both staud forth. 

Por. Is your name Shylock? 

Shy. Shylock is my name. 

Por. Of a strange nature is the suit 3'ou follow; 
Yet in such rule, that the Venetian law 
Cannot impugn you, as you do proceed. — 
You stand within his danger, do you not i [ To Antonio. 

Ant. Ay, so he says. 

Poi\ Do you confess the bond ' 

Ant. I do. 

Por. Then must the Jew l)e merciful. 

Shy. On what compulsion must I 1 tell me that. 

Por. The quality of mercy is not straind : 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd ; 
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes ; 
'Tis mightiest in the mightest; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown ; 
His scepter shows the force of temporal power. 
The attribute to awe and majestv. 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 
But mercy is above this scepter'd sway, 
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 
It is an attribute to God himself : 
And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, 
Though justice be thy plea, consider this, — 
That in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation ; we do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much, 
To mitigate the justice of thy plea ; 
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice 
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there. 

Shy. My deeds upon my head ! I crave the law, 



104 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



The penalty and forfeit of my bond. 

For. Is he not able to discharge the money ? 

Bass. Yes, here 1 tender it for him in tlie court, 
Yea, twice the sum; if that will not suffice, 
1 will be bound to pay it ten times o'er, 
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart ; 
If this will not suffice, it must appear 
That malice bears down truth. And I beseech j^ou, 
Wrest once the law to your authority ; 
To do a great right, do a little wrong; 
And curb this cruel devil of his will. 

Por. It must not be ; there is no power in Venice 
Can alter a decree established ; 
'Twill be recorded for a precedent; 
And many an error, by the same example, 
Will rush into the state; it cannot be. 

Shy. A Daniel come to judgment ! yea, a Daniel ! — 
O wise young judge, how do I honour thee ! 

Por. I pray you, let me look upon the bond. 

Shy. Here 'tis, most reverend doctor, here it is. 

Por. Shylock, there's thrice thy money ofit'er'd thee. 

Shy. An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven ; 
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul ? 
No, not for Venice. 

Por. Why, this bond is forfeit ; 

And lawful!}^ by this the Jew may claim 
A pound of tlesh, to be by him cut off 
Nearest the merchant's heart : — Be merciful; 
Take thrice thy money ; bid me tear the bond. 

Shy. When it is paid according to the tenor. — 
It doth appear you are a worthy judge ; 
You know the law ; your exposition 
Hath been most sound ; I charge you by the law^ 
Whereof you are a well deserving pillar. 
Proceed to judgment ; by my soul I swear, 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 105 



There is no power in the tongue of man 
To alter me ; I staj^ here on my bond. 

Ant. Most heartily I do beseech the court 
To give the judgment. 

For. Wliy tlien, tlius it is. 

You must prepare your bosom for his knife. 

SJiy. () noble judged O excellent young man ! 

For. For the intent and purpose of the law 
Hath full relation to the penalty, 
Which here appeareth due upon the bond. 

Shy. 'Tis very true : O wise and upright judge ! 
How much more elder art thou than thy looks ! 

For. Therefore, lay bare your bosom. 

Shy. Ay, his breast ; 

So says the bond ; — Dolh it not, noble judge ? — 
Nearest his heart, those are the very words. 

Foi'. It is so. Are there balance here to weigh 
The tiesh ? 

Shy. I have them ready. 

For. Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on j^our charge. 
To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death. 

Shy. Is it so nominated in the bond ? 

For. It is not so express'd : But what of that ? 
'Twere good you do so much for charity. 

Shy. I cannot tind it ; 'tis not in the bond. 

For. Come, merchant, have you anything to say? 

Ant. But little ; I am arm'd and well prepared. — 
Give me your hand, Bassanio; fare you well ! 
Grieve not that 1 am fallen to this for you ; 
For herein fortune shows herself more kind 
Than is her custom; it is still her use. 
To let the wretched man out-live his wealth, 
To view with hollow eye, and wrinkled brow, 
An age of poverty: from which lingering penance 
Of such a misery doth she cut me off. 



106 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Commend me to ^-our honourable wife ; 
Tell her the process of Antonio's end. 
Say, how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death ; 
And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge, 
Whether Bassanio had not once a love. 
Repent not 3'ou that you shall lose 3'our friend, 
And he repents not that he pays your debt ; 
For if the Jew do cut but deep enough, 
I'll pay it instantly with all my heart. 

Bass. Antonio, I'm married to a wife, 
Which is as dear to me as life itself ; 
But lite itself, my wife, and all the world. 
Are not with me esteem'd above thy life ; 
I would lose all, ay, sacritice them all 
Here to this devil, to deliver 3'ou. 

Por. Your wife would give you little thanks for that, 
•If she were by, to hear j'ou make the ofter. 

(t?'«. I have a wife, whom 1 protest I love; 
1 would she were in heaven, so she could 
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew. 

JVer. 'Tis well vou offer it behind her back ; 
The wish would make else an unquiet house. 

tShy. These be the Christian husbands: I have a daughter 
'Would any of the stock of Barabbas 
Had been her husband, rather than a Christian! [Aside. 
We tritle time ; I praj^ thee pursue sentence. 

Por. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine ; 
The court awards it, and the law doth give it. 

/S7ii/. Most rightful judge ! 

Por. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast ; 
The law allows it, and the court awards it. 

Shy. Most learned judge I — A sentence ; come, prepare. 

Por. Tany a little : — there is something else. — 
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; 
The words expressly are a pound of flesh ; 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 107 



Take then thy bond, take thou th}- pound of tlesh ; 

But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed 

One drop of Christian Idood, thy lands and goods 

Are, by the laws of Venice, contiscate 

Unto the state of Venice. 

Gra. O upright judge I — Mark, Jew : — O learned judge ! 

Shy. Is that the law? 

Por. Thyself shall see the act ; 

For, as thou urgest justice, be assurd 
Thou shalt have justice more than thou desir'st. 

Gra. O learned judge ! — Mark, Jew : — a learned judge! 

Shy. I take this oft'er then ; — pay the bond thrice 
And let the Christian go. 

Bass. Here is the money. 

Por. Soft; 
The Jew shall have all justice:— soft I — no haste ;— 
He shall have nothing but the penalty. 

Gra. O Jew I an upright judge, a learned judge ! 

Par. Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh. 
Shed thou no blood; nor cut thou less nor more, 
But just a pound of flesh : If thou tak'st more. 
Or less than a just pound, — be it but so much 
As makes it light, or heavy, in the substance, 
Or the division of the twentieth part 
Of one poor scruple ; nay, if the scale do turn 
But in the estimation of a hair, — 
Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate. 

Gra. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew ! 
Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip. 

Por. Wh}' doth the Jew pause ? take thy forfeiture. 

Shy. Give me my principal and let me go. 

Bass. 1 have it ready for thee ; here it is. 

Por. He hath refused it in the open court ; 
He shall have mereh' justice, and his bond. 

Gra. A Daniel, still sav 1 ; a second Daniel I — 



108 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. 

Shy. Shall J not have barel}' my principal ? 

For. Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture, 
To be so taken at thy peril, .Jew. 

Shy. Wh}' then the devil give him good of it ; 
I'll stay no longer question. 

For. Tarry, Jew ; 

The law hath yet another hold on you. 
It is enacted in the laws of Venice, — 
If it be prov'd against an alien. 
That by direct, or indirect attempts, 
He seek the life of any citizen, 
The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive, 
Shall seize one-half his goods ; the other half 
Comes to the privy coffer of the state ; 
And the offender's life lies in the mercy 
Of the Duke only, 'gainst all other voice. 
In which predicament, I say thou standst : 
For it appears by manifest proceeding, 
That, indirectly, and directly too, 
Thou hast contrived 'gainst the very life 
Of the defendant ; and thou hast incurr'd 
The danger formerly by me rehears'd. 
Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the duke. 

Gra. Beg, that thou may'st have leave to hang thysalf ; 
And 3'et, thy wealth being forfeit to the state, 
Thou hast not left the value of a cord ; 
Therefore, thou must be banged at the state's charge. 

Duke. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit, 
1 pardon thee thy life before thou ask it ; 
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's; 
The other half comes to the general state, 
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine. 

Par. Ay, for the state ; not for Antonio. 

Shy. Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that ; 



I 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 109 



You take my house, when ,you do take the prop 
That doth sustain m}' house ; you take my life, 
When you do lake the means whereby I live. 

Por. What merc}^ can you render him, Antonio ? 

Gra. A halter gratis ; nothing else, for God's sake. 

Ant. So please my lord the duke, and all the court, 
To quit the fine for one-half of his goods ; 
I am content, so he will let me have 
The other half in use, — to render it, 
Upon his death, unto the gentleman 
That lately stole his daughter : 
Two things provided more, — That for this favor 
He presently become a Christian ; 
The other, that he do record a gift, 
Here in the court, of all he dies possessed, 
Unto his son Lorenzo, and his daughter. 

Duke. He shall do this ; or else I do recant 
Thepardon, that I late pronounced here. 

Por. Art thou contented, Jew ; what dost thou say ? 

Shy. I am content. 

Por. Clerk, draw a deed of gift. 

Shy. 1 pray you, give me leave to go from hence ; 
I am not well ; send the deed after me. 
And 1 will sign it. 

Duke. Get thee gone, but do it. 

Qj'a. In christening thou shalt have two godfathers; 
Had I been judge, thou should'st have had ten more, 
To bring thee to the gallows, not the font. 

[Exit Shylock, 

Duke. Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner. 

Por. I humbly do desire your grace of pardon ; 
I must away this night toward Padua, 
And it is meet I presently set forth. 

Duke. I am sorry that your leisure serves you not. 
Antonio, gratify this gentleman ; 



110 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



For, in my mind, you are much bound to him. 

[Exeunt Duko, magnificoes, and train. 

Bass. Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend 
Have, by your wisdom, been this day acquitted 
Of grevious penalties ; in lieu whereof, 
Three tliousand ducats due unto the Jew, 
We freely cope your courteous pains withal. 

Ant. And stand indebted, over and above. 
In love and service to you evermore. 

Par. He is well paid, that is well satisfied ; 
And I, delivering you, am satisfied, 
And therein do account myself .well paid ; 
My mind was never yet more mercenary. 
1 pray you, know me when we meet again ; 
1 wish you well, and so I take my leave. 

Bass. Dear sir, of force 1 must attempt you further ; 
Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute. 
Not as a fee ; grant me two things, I pray you, 
Not to deny me, and to pardon me. 

For. You press me far, and therefore I will yield. 
Give me your gloves, I'll wear them for your sake ; 
And, for your love, I'll take this ring from you ; — 
Do not draw back your hand ; I'll take no more ; 
And you in love sliall not deny me this. 

Bass. This ring, good sir, — alas, it is a trifle; 
I will not shame myself to give you this. 

Por. I will have nothing else but only this; 
And now, methinks, I have a mind to it. 

Bass. There's more depends on this than on the value. 
The dearest ring in Venice will I give you, 
And find it out by proclamation ; 
Only for this, I pray you, pardon me. 

Poj\ I see, sir, you are liberal in offers : 
You taught me first to beg ; and now, methinks, 
You teach me how a beggar should be answcr'd. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAKE. Ill 

Bass. Good sir, this rino; was given me by my wife ; 
And when she put it on she made me vow 
That 1 should neither sell, nor give, nor lose it. 

For. That 'scuse serves many men to save their gifts. 
An if 3^our wife be not a mad woman, 
And know how well 1 have deserv'd this ring, 
She would not hold out enemy forever, 
For givmg't to me. Well, peace be with you. 

[hJxeunt Portia and Nerissa.. 

Ant. My lord Bassanio, let him have the ring ; 
Let his deservings, and my love withal, 
Be valued 'gainst 3'^our wife's commandment, 

Bass. Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him. 
Give him the ring; and bring him, if thou canst, 
Unto Antonio's house :— awa}', make haste. [Exit Gratiano. 
Come, you and 1 will thither presently ; 
And in the morning early will we both 
Fly toward Belmont. Come, Antonio. [Exeunt. 

SCENE II. — The same. A street. Enter Portia and Nerissa.. 

Por. Inquire the Jew's house out, give him this deed. 
And let him sign it ; we'll away to-night, 
And be a day before our husbands home : 
This deed will be well welcome to Lorenzo. 

Enter Gratiano. 

Gra. Fair sir, you are well overtaken. 
My lord, Bassanio, upon more advice. 
Hath sent you here this ring ; and doth entreat 
Your company at dinner. 

Por. That cannot be; 

This ring I do accept most thankfully. 
And so, I pray you, tell him. Furthermore, 
I pray you, show my youth old Shylock's house. 

Gra. That will 1 do. 

Ner. Sir, 1 would speak with you — 

I'll see if I can get my husband's ring, [ To Portia.. 



112 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Which I did make him swear to keep forever. 

Por,_ Thou ma3''st, I warrant. We shall have old swearing, 
That they did give the rings away to men ; 
But we'll outface them, and outswear them too. 
Away, make haste ; thou know'st where I will tarry. 

Ner. Come, good sir, will you show me to this house ? 

The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scenes 1, 2. 

The trial scene in the Merchant of Venice has 
that interest which in fiction and dramatic repre- 
sentation is always awakened by a representation 
of the proceedings of a court of justice. In any 
case, the interest greatly depends upon fidelity of 
representation, and this requires exact special 
knowledge. In this respect this act is so complete 
that it will not bear mutilation. 

At the outset the duke notices that Antonio "is 
here," who says he is "ready." This word is the 
sole phrase to express that the party using it is 
ready for trial, and such has been its use from the 
time of the Year-Books down to the present day. 

Berreioik. Answer to this trespass. 

Hunt. We did not come and we did not commit any tort, 
ready, etc. It was answered by Mutford that B. was neither 
a borough nor a vill. Lanfer — the place is knovn by that 
name, ready, etc. {Y. B. Edward /., p. 168, Hawood's Ed., 
1863.) 

The duke directs some one to "call into court the 
Jew." Calling the plaintiff was a proceeding in a 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 113 

trial, and if he failed to appear he became nonsuited. 
Shylock appears. In the remonstrance which the 
duke addresses to him it is stated that the "pen- 
alty" of the bond is the pound of flesh, and the 
condition is the payment of three thousand ducats. 
This appears, though less plainly, in Shylock's 
proposition to Antonio. (See No. 52.) The "pen- 
alty" of a bond becomes due in case the obligor 
fails to perform the condition. The duke hopes 
that Shylock will forgive a "moiety" of the "prin- 
cipal." Shylock admits that he follows "a losing 
suit" in claiming the "forfeit" of his bond, but 
"stands for judgment." He whets his knife to cut 
the forfeiture from the "bankrupt." He kliows 
the sanctity of a "seal," and the incontrovertible 
presumption which it imputes of a consideration, 
and proposes to stand upon his security until "the 
seal" is railed from off the bond. Bellario in his 
letter calls the matter "a cause in controversy." 
Portia commands the "parties to stand forth." 
The only question for proof is the execution of the 
bond by Antonio, who "confesses" it. This closes 
the testimony, and Shylock's case is proved. Por- 
8 



114 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE, 

tia admits the "justice of the plea" of Shylock un- 
der the strict law of Venice, but urges him to 
"mitigate" it. But Shylock craves the law, 

" The penalty and forfeit of my bond." 

Portia asks if Antonio is not able to "discharge'^ 
the money, but the condition of payment not hav- 
ing been performed at the day, the Jew is entitled 
to his penalty, notwithstanding Bassanio makes 
"tender" for him "here," "in the court." Shylock 
demands payment "according to the tenor" of his 
bond, and ''tenor," in legal definition, is exactness. 
He declares that Portia's "exposition" of the law 
has been "most sound," and she decides that the 
intent and purpose of the law relate to the "pen- 
alty." Shylock refuses to have a surgeon by be- 
cause it is not so "nominated in the bond." Por- 
tia, before giving judgment, asks Antonio if he has 
"anything to say." She "awards" judgment. She 
tells Shylock that he shall see "the act" which 
prohibits shedding blood in cutting the flesh, and 
then declares that he shall have nothing but the 
"penalty." She asks Shylock why he does not take . 
his "forfeiture," who then asks for his "principal." 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 115 

She then applies to him another rule "enacted in 
the laws of Venice." Antonio prays that Shylock's 
"fine" may be "quit" for one^half his goods, upon 
condition of a gift by Shylock to his son and 
daughter, and the "clerk" is directed to "draw a 
deed of gift." Bassanio then craves leave to give 
the judge a present, "as a tribute, not as a fee," 
and Portia takes his gloved and a ring, in the man- 
ner in which presents were made to judges in 
Shakespeare's time. {Bacons Works, Montague's 
Ed. vol. 1, jy. 95.) 

Shakespeare doubtless knew the story of the at- 
tempt to recompense Sir Thomas Moore by Mrs. 
Croker, in whose favor he had decided a case. She 
gave him a pair of gloves, in which were forty 
pounds. He told her that it were ill manners to 
refuse a lady's present, and therefore he would 
keep the gloves, but he made her take back the 
money. {Lives Lord Chan. vol. 2, p. 54.) 

It is also to be noted that the duke appears first 
as a judge, but afterwards delegates that function 
to Portia. This, too, is based upon common law^ 
for in early times the English kings in person often 



116 THE LAAV IN SITAKESPEARE. 

heard and determined causes, but had power to 
and did delegate their judicial functions. 

The whole of this exquisite act is forensic. The 
author's mind, in its employment of legal terms, 
has, like the dyer's hand, been subdued to what it 
has worked in. There is not a trace of that af- 
fected familiarity and unavoidable inaccuracy which 
always appears when a tvriter is using a nomencla- 
ture with which he has been obliged to cram for the 
occasion. Had Shakespeare described in The Tem- 
pest the incidents of a voyage, — the weighing an- 
chor, the daily routine of ship-life, or the wreck, — 
with the same accuracy and familiarity with which 
he has here and elsewhere given the proceedings of a 
court, it might well be suspected that he had sailed 
with Drake, or had been one of those captains who 
"shattered the Armada's pride." In The Tempest 
he is constrained in his use of nautical terms, uses 
them inaccurately and recklessly, and passes from 
them as quickly as he can. So, in his use of medi- 
cal or anatomical and military terms, he betrays 
considerable information, but little or no technical 
knowledge. Sir Walter Scott, in regard to legal 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 117 

matters, shows similar accuracy. If the memorials 
of his life were as blank as those of Shakespeare, 
we would know from the trials of Ef!ie Deans and 
Eebecca, and from the disquisitions of Mr. Barto- 
line Saddletree, as certainly as we are in fact in- 
formed by the abundant details of his biography 
that he had studied law so thoroughly as to qualify 
him for admission to the bar. We can infer from 
Fielding's use of legal terms that he was a magis- 
trate. On the other hand, Dickens, who could 
learn more from observation than any writer of our 
time, in his attack upon the court of chancery does 
not even attempt any display of technical knowl- 
edge in his treatment of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce. 
Besides all this, there is the noble definition of the 
relations of mercy to justice which age cannot 
wither nor custom stale. Here and elsewhere 
, Shakespeare speaks like a philosophical jurist. We 
seem to hear mercy herself claiming her preroga- 
tive b}^ words from her own angel lips. 

It may be observed here that the law language of 
Shakespeare is that of the common law, and not of 
the equity jurisprudence. The word subpoena, or any 
other word peculiar to the chancery, is not, so far as I 



118 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

am aware, used by him. Yet he wrote after the time 
when Waltham had enjoined the Shylocks of his day 
from exacting their penalties, and compelled them 
to take their principal, after Wolsey had expanded 
the jurisdiction of that court, and after More had 
administered its benevolent justice in such cases. 
He was cotemporary with EUesmere, and with that 
memorable contest between the courts of equity and 
law in which the former insisted upon its power 
to give relief, against the strict letter of the common 
law, from penalties and forfeitures, even after judg- 
ment. Had Shakespeare been a chancery lawyer 
he might have caused an injunction to be served 
on Shylock, and avoided the unsatisfactory and 
quibbling process by which Portia rescued the mer- 
chant from the knife of the Jew. 

Act. (See Nos. 162, 19S.) 

Exposition of the Law. (See No. 232.) 

Fine. (See Nos. 23, 248.) 

Forfeit. (See Nos. 17, 25, 52, 259, 306.) 

Mercy. (See Nos. 24, 25, 48.) 

Moiety. (See Nos. 132, 259, 298.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 119 

l^O. 57. 

As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed 
me, by will, but a poor thousand crowns, and, as thou say'st, 
charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well ; and 
there begins my sadness. 

An You Like It, Act 1, Scene 1. 

A legacy is bequeathed; lands are devised. 

(See No. 293.) 

No. 58. 

More villain thou. — Well, push him out of doors ; 
And let my officers of such a nature 
Make an extent upon his house and lands : 
Do this expediently, and turn him going. 

As You Like It, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Extent. A writ of execution against the body, 
lands, or goods of the debtor. An extent in chief 
was formerly a summary seizure by the sovereign 
for the recovery of his own debt. {Tomlin's Law 
Diet.) 

It was not final process after judgment or on 
scire facias, but it was the first proceeding. It be- 
came a grievous means of oppression. In this scene 
the duke orders a summary extent in chief to be 
made. 

No. 59. 

Orl. Who stays it still withal ? 

Ros. With lawyers in the vacation ; for they sleep between 
term and term, and then they perceive not how time moves. 

As You Like It, Act 3, Scent 2. 

Term. (See No. 139.) 



120 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 60. 

Orl. Then, in mine own person, I die. 

Ros. No, faith, die by attorne3^ Tlie poor world is almost 
six thousand 3^ears old, and in all this time there was not any 
man died in his own person, videlicit, in a love-cause. 

As Yon Like It, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Attorney. Is one appointed by another man 
to act for him. [Tomlins Law Diet.) 

In such case the principal is said to have acted 
by his attorney. Where one acts for himself he is. 
said to do so in his own person. 

Videlicit. To-wit. [Tomlins Laic Diet.) 

Cause. (See Nos. 13, 149, 60, 184, 200, 277a.} 

l^o. 61. 

Well, Time is the old justice that examines all such offend- 
ers, and let Time try : Adieu ! 

As You Like It, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Examine. Justices of the peace, before com- 
mitting or bailing any person charged before them 
with felony or misdemeanor, shall take down the 
examination. (Tomlins Law Diet.) 

(See Nos. 36, 38.) 

There is no equivalent for the phrase "examine"" 
as applied to proceedings before justices against 
persons charged with crime. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 121 

• i 

No. 62. 

And I, in going, madam, weep o'er mj^ father's death anew l 
hut I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now 
iu ward, evermore in subjection. 

All's Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1. 

In ward. Primer seisin was the right which 
the king had upon the death of a tenant seized of 
a knight's fee to receive of the heir one year's prof- 
its of the lands, and to do this he had the right to 
enter and possess the land. This, however, was 
the case only when the heir was of full age. If 
under the age of twenty-one, being a male, or of 
fourteen, being a female, the lord was entitled to 
the wardship of the heir, which consisted in having 
the custody of the body and goods of the heir with- 
out being accountable for profits until, in the case 
of the female ward, she reached sixteen years of 
age. (2 BL Comm. marg. p. 67.) 

No. 63. 

Sir, lor a quart d'ecu he will sell the fee-simple of his sal- 
vation, the inheritance of it ; and cut the entail from all re- 
mainders, and a perpetual succession for it perpetually. 

Alfs Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Fee-simple. (See Nos. 6, 159, 247, 312.) 

Remainder. An estate limited in lands to be 
enjoyed after the expiration of another particular 
estate, and a remainder may be either for a certain 
time or in fee. (Tonilins Law Diet.) 

Entail. An estate tail is an estate of inherit- 
ance to a man or woman, and his or her heirs of 



122 THE LAAV IN SIIAKESPEAKE. 

« 

his or her body, or heirs of his or her body of a 
particular description. [Bouv. Laiv Diet.) 

(See Nos. 161, 237.) 

If a man makes a feoffment to the use of him- 
self for life, remainder to the heirs male of his 
body, this is an estate tail executed in him. (i 
Mod. 159.) 

The effect of a fine and recovery was to bar the 
issue in tail by a fiction of law adopted for the pur- 
pose of destroying perpetuities of this character, 
whereby all tenants in tail were enabled, by pursu- 
ing the proper form, to bar the estates tail. {10 
Hep. 37.) 

ParoUes wishes to express how completely Dumain 
will sell his title to salvation, and he applies the 
analogy of an estate so encumbered by limitations, 
entails, and remainders that the most abstruse de- 
vices of the English law were necessary to enable 
the possessor to give a valid title in fee-simple. 
Mistress Page (No. 6) describes the devil's title to 
-Palstaff in similar law phrase. (See, also. No. 85.) 

Inheritance. (See No. 127.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 123 



-No, 64. 

Hor. Kisc, Grumio, rise ; we will compound this quarrel. 
Gj'U. Nay, 'tis no matter, what he 'leges in Latin, — if this 
t)e not a lawful cause for me to leave his service. 

The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scetie 2. 

'Leges in Latin. By the statute 36 Edw. III., 
and which remained in force until the time of Crom- 
well, all allegations in pleading were in Latin. (5 
Bl. Comm. marg. p. 318.) 

Compound. (See No. 67.) 

No. 65. 

And do as adversaries do in law,— 

Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. 

The Taming- of the Shreio, Act 1, Scene 2. 

No. 66. 

Pet. Then, tell me, if I get vour daughter's love, 
What dowry shall I have with her to wife? 

Bap. After my death, the one half of my lands 
And, in possession, twenty thousand crowns. 

Pet. And for that dowr}-, I'll assure her of 
Her widowhood, be it that she survive me, 
In all my lands and leases whatsoever : 
Let specialties be therefore drawn between us. 
That covenants may be kept on either hand. 

The Taming of the Shrew, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Dowry formerly meant that which a woman 
brings her husband in marriage. (Bouv, Laiu 
Diet.) 

(SeeNos. 15, 67, 165.) 



Assure. (See No. 6T.) 



124 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Specialties. (See No. 46.) 

Covenants. The agreement or consent of two 
or more by deed in writing, sealed and delivered.. 
{Tomlins Law Diet.) 

(SeeNos. 126, 217.) 

The parties are considering a marriage settle- 
ment, whereby Petruchio, in consideration of Kath- 
erine's dowry, proposes to "assure" her by "spe- 
cialties," containing "covenants" to that effect, an 
equal amount in all his lands and leases, provided 
she "survives" him. 

Assure. (See No. 67.) 

No. 67. 

Content 3^011, gentlemen ; I will compound this strife : 

'Tis deeds must win the prize ; and he, of both, 

That can assure my daughter greatest dower 

Shall have Bianca's love. 

Say, signior Gremio, what can you assure her ? 

The Taming of the Shrcxo, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Here is a pun on the word "deed" — deeds of land 
instead of deeds of arms. 

Assure. (See No. 6Q.) 

Compound. (See No. 64.) 

Dower. (See Nos. 15, 6Q, 69.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 125 

No. 68. 

But for my bonny Kate, she must with me. 
'Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret. 
1 will be master of what is mine own: 
She is my goods, my chattels ; she is my house, 
M}' household-stuff, my field, my barn, 
My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing ; 
And here she stands, touch her whoever dare 
I'll bring my action on the proudest he 
That stops my way in Padua. 

The Taming- of the Shreto, Act 3, Scene 2. 

No. 69. 

Bap. And, therefore, if you say no more than this, 
That like a father you will deal with him 
And pass my daughter a sufficient dower, 
The match is fully made, and all is done : 
Your son shall have my daughter with consent. 

Tra. I thank j'ou, sir. Where then do you know best, 
We be affied; and such assurance ta'en, 
As shall with either part's agreement stand? 

The Taming of the Shreto, Act 4, Scene 4. 

Affied. (See No. 226.) 
Assurance. (See Nos. 99, 276.) 
Dower. (See Nos. 15, 6Q, 67.) 

No. 70. 

Here packing with a witness to deceive us all. 

The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 1. 



126 THE LAW IN SIIAKESPEAIIE. 



No. 71. 

Th}^ husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, 

Thy head, thy sovereign ; one that cares for thee. 

And for thy maintenance : commits his body 

To painful labour, both by sea and land, 

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, 

While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe ; 

And craves no other tribute at thy hands. 

But love, fair looks, and true obedience ; 

Too little payment for so great a debt. 

Such duty as the subject owes the prince. 

Even such, a woman oweth to her husband : 

And, when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour, 

And, not obedient to his honest will. 

What is she, but a foul contending rebel, 

And graceless traitor to lier loving lord ? 

I am asham'd, that women are so simple 

To otter war, where they should kneel for peace. 

Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway. 

When they are bound to serve, love, and obey. 

Why are our bodies soft, and weak and smooth, 

Unapt to toil and trouble in the world ; 

But that our soft conditions, and our hearts, 

Should well agree with our extftrnal parts ? 

Come, come, you froward and unable worms ! 

My mind hath been as big as one of yours, 

Myheart as great, my reason, haply, more, 

To bandy word for word, and frown for frown ; 

But now, I see our lances are but straws ; 

Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare, 

That seeming to be most, which we least are. 

Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot ; 

And place your hands below your husband's foot : 

In token of which duty, if he please. 

My hand is ready, may it do him case. 

The Taming of the Shreto, Art 5, Scetu 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 127 

a-_ . 

The common-law status of a married woman, and 
some of the reasons by which it vindicated the mer- 
ger, in legal contemplation, of her existence into 
that of her husband, are here fully exhibited. 

No. 72. 

Had we pursued that life, 

And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd 

With stronger blood, we should have answered heaven 

Boldly, Not Guilty : the imposition cleared, 

Hereditary ours. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 1, Scene 2. 

No. 73. 

She's an adulteress ; 1 have said with whom : 
More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is 
A federary with her. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Traitor. (See No. 79.) 

No. 74. 

They are co-heirs ; 
And I had rather glib myself, than they 
Should not produce a fair issue. 

The WinteT's Tale, Act 2, Scene 1. 

No. 75. 

Our prerogative 
Calls not your counsels, but our natural goodness 
Imparts this. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 2, Scene 1. 

The Tudor and Stuart conception of the extent 
of the prerogative is asserted here. It took more 
than a century and a half to quell the exorbitant 
pretensions of the English sovereigns in this re- 



128 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

•spect. The spirit of the people was unbroken by 
the lordly brutality of Henry VIII. , the sullen per- 
versity of Mary, the dexterity of Elizabeth, the fa- 
tuity of James I., the blinded obstinacy of Charles 
I., the voluptuous shamelessness of Charles II., and 
the ferocious bigotry of James II. 

No. 76. 

This child was prisoner to the womb, and is 
By law and process of great nature thence 
Freed and enfranchised, not a party to 
The anger of the king, nor guilty of, 
If any be, the trespass of the queen. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 2, Scene 2. 

No. 77. 

Unless he take the course that you have done, 
Commit me for committing honor. 

The Winters Tale, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Commit. (See Nos. 136, 141, 146, 166.) 

JS-0U78. 

Summon a session, that we ma}^ arraign 
Our most disloyal lady ; for as she hath 
Been publicly accused, so shall she have 
A just and open trial. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Session. (See Nos. 79, 280, 283.) 
Arraign. (See Nos. 27, 79, 239, 286.) 



The law il^ sliAKESl'feAtifi. I2d 

No. 79. 

Leon. This sessions, to our great grief, we pronounce, 
Even pushes gainst our heart : the party tried, 
The daughter of a king ; our wife, and one 
Of us too much belov'd. Let us be clear'd 
Of being tyrannous, since we so openly 
Proceed in justice, which shall have due course, 
Even to the guilt, or the purgation 
Produce the prisoner. 

Offi. It is his highness' pleasure that the queen 
Appear in person here in court. Silence ! 

Enter Hermione, guarded; Paulina and Ladies, attending. 

Leon. Read the indictment. 

Offi. Hermione, queen to the worthy Leontes, king of Si- 
cilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in 
committing adultery with Polixenes, king of Bohemia ; and 
conspiring with Camillo, to take away the life of our sover- 
eign lord the king, th}^ royal husband ; the pretence whereof 
being by circumstances partly laid upon, thou Hermione, con- 
trary to the faith and allegiance of a true subject, didst coun- 
sel and aid them, for their better safety, to fly away by night. 

Her. Since what 1 am to say, must be but that 
Which contradicts my accusation, and 
The testimony on my part, no other 
But what comes from mj'self, it shall scarce boot me 
To say, Not guilty : mine integrit}', 
Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it, 
Be so receiv'd. 

7786 Winter' t Tale, Act 3, Scttu 2. 

Sessions. (See Nos. 78, 280, 283.) 

Appear in person. (See No. 127.) 

Arraigned. (See Nos. 27, 78, 79, 239, 286.) 
9 



130 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

The second species of treason is, if a man do 
violate the king's companion. * * * gy the 
king's companion is meant his wife. * * * And 
this is high treason in both parties, if both be con- 
senting. (4 Bl. Conim. marg. p. 81.) 

No. 80. 

W ow my liege 
Tell me what blessings I have here alive, 
That 1 should fear to die ? Therefore proceed. 
But yet hear tliis; mistake me not ; no life, 
1 prize it not a straw, but for mine honour 
Which I would free, if 1 shall be condemn'd 
Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else. 
But what your jealousies awake, 1 tell you, 
'Tis rigour and not law. 

T/ie Winter's Tale Act 3, Scene 3. 

No. 81. 

lie hath ribbons of all the colors i' the rainbow; points 
more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 4. 

Points in dress were tagged lace, used to fasten 
hose to the doublet. 

FaL Their points being broken — 
Poins. Down fell their hose. 

The legal meaning of this word is, of course, 
known to every one. The play upon the word here 
illustrates a habit in Shakespeare of yielding to the 
suggestiveness of a common word, and turning a 



THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 131 

phrase in order to present it again in its legal sig- 
nification. 

No. 82. 

Flo. O, hear me breathe my life 

Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem, 
Hath sometime lov'd ! I take thy hand, this hand, 
As soft as dove's down, and as white as it, 
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow. 
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice oer. 

Pol. What follows this ? 
How prettily the young swain seems to wash 
The hand, was fair before I I have put you out : 
But to your protestation ; let me hear 
What you profess. 

Flo. Do, and be witness to't. 

Pol. And this my neighbor too ? 

Flo. And he, and more 

Than he, and men, the earth, the heavens, and all : 
That, were I crown'd the most imperial monarch, 
Thereof most worthy, were 1 the fairest youth 
That ever made eye swerve, had force, and knowledge, 
More than was ever man's, I would not prize them 
Without her love : for her employ them all : 
Commend them, and condemn them, to her service, 
Or to their own perdition. 

Pol. Fairly offer'd. 

Cam. This shows a sound affection. 

Shep. But, my daughter, 

Say 3'ou the like to him ? 

Per. I cannot speak 

So well, nothing so well ; no, nor mean better: 
By the pattern of mine own thoughts 1 cut out 
The purity of his. 

Shep. Take hands, a bargain ; 



132 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to't : 
I give my daughter to him, and will make 
Her portion equal his. 

Flo. O, that must he 

1' the virtue of your daughter : one being dead, 
I shall have more than you can dream of yet ; 
Enough then for your wonder: But, come on, 
Contract us 'fore these witnesses. 

Shep. Come, your hand : 

And, daughter, yours. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 4. 

1 have heard lawyers say a contract in a chamber, 
Per verba presenti, is absolute marriage. 

Duchess of MaIJi . 

iSeeNos. 14, 15.) 

No. 83. 

we'll bar thee from succession. 

The Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 3. 

No. 84. 

With her I liv'd in joy; our wealth increas'd, 
By prosperous voyages I often made 
To Epidamnum, till my factor's death. 
And the great care of goods at random left, 
Drew me from kind embracement of my spouse. 

The Comedy of Errors, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Factor. An agent employed to sell goods con- 
signed or delivered to him. {Bouv. Law Diet.) 

There is no inaccuracy here, nor use of any but 
the exact word. "Agent" would be too general, 
and the "broker" has no possession of goods. See 
the use of the word "brokers," in No. 265, as "im- 
plorators of unholy suits," etc. 

(See No. 171.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 133 

No. 85. 

Bro. S. There's no time for a man to recover his hair, that 
grows bald by nature. 

Ant. S. May he not do it by fine and recovery ? 

Dro. S. Yes, to pay a fine for a peruke, and recover the 
lost hair of another man. 

The Comedy of Errors, Acl 2, Scene 2. 

Pine and recovery. (See Nos. 6, 63, 276.) 
This is a lawyer's pun, and would never have 
occurred to any one but a lawyer. There is also 
here a very abstruse quibble in the use of the words 
"recover the lost hair of another man," for the ef- 
fect of a fine and recovery was to bar not only the 
heirs upon whom the lands were entailed, but all 
the world. 

No. 86. 

Sec. Mer. Therefore make present satisfaction, or I'll 
Attach you by this officer. 

***** 

Well, officer, arrest him at my suit. 

***** 

Ajig. Either consent to pay the sum for me, 

Or I attach you by this officer. 

Here is thy fee ; arrest him, officer. 

The Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Scene 1. 

"Present satisfaction" is demanded, or "attach- 
ment by an officer" will follow; the officer is or- 
dered to "arrest him" at "my suit," and the offi- 
cer's "fee" is tendered. 



134 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Arrest. (See Nos. 11, 17, 87, 137, 138, 277a, 
295, 300. 

Attach. (See Nos. 254, 257, 280.) 

No. 87. 

Adr. Why, man, what is the matter ? 

Dro. S. I do not know the matter : he is 'rested on the case. 

Adr. What, is he arrested ? tell me at whose suit. 

Dro. S. I know not at whose suit he is arrested well ; 
But he's in a suit of butf, which 'rested him, that can 1 tell : 
Will you send him, mistress, redemption? the money in his 

[desk? 

IVie Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Scene 2. 

The word "matter" has always meant in legal 
proceedings the question in controversy. 

"Arrested on the case" signifies that Antipholus 
has been arrested in a peculiar form of action called 
"case," which was a universal remedy for all wrongs 
or injuries unaccompanied by force. Where any 
special or consequential damage arose which could 
not be foreseen, the party injured was allowed, both 
by common law and the statute of Westm. 2, c. 24:, 
to bring a special action on his own case by a writ 
framed according to the peculiar circumstances of 
his own particular grievance. (3 Bl. Comm. marg, 
pp. 122-8.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 135 

The declaration stated that Henry, Earl of De Loraine, was 
summoned to answer William Hunter in a plea of trespass on 
the case. 

Demurrer, that it is alleged by the declaration that the said 
earl hath been summoned, whereas he ought to have been at- 
tached to answer, etc. 

Lord Mansfield. The declaration is bad. In an action on 
the case the first process is an attachment. {Hunter v. Earl 
of De Loiaine, 2 Chitiy, (18 F^7ig. Coin. Laic,) 825.) 

Matter. (See Nos. 56, 158.) 

Arrested. (See Nos. 11, 17, 86, 137, 138, 
277a, 295, 300.) 

No. 88. 

Thou hast suborned the goldsmith to arrest me. 

The Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Scent 4. 

Suborned. (See Nos. 95, 286, 304.) 

No. 89. 

He is m}' prisoner ; if 1 let him go, 
The debt he owes will be requir'd of me. 

The Comedy of Errors, Act 4, Scene 4. 

This is the law of the sheriff's liability in case 
the prisoner whom he has arrested for debt escapes. 
(5 Bl. Comm. marg. p. 290.) 

No. 90. 

Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, 
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor: 
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! 
For it is thine. 

♦ *****» 



136 'THli LAW IN SttAKESPliAftfi. 

Mach. Why hath it given me earnest of success, 
Commencing in a truth ? 1 am thane of Cawdor. 

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. 

Earnest. Money paid in part of a large sum. 
A part of the goods delivered on any contract. 
(Tomlin's Law Diet.) 

(See No. 148.) 

Addition. The title or estate and place of 
abode given to a man besides his name. {Tomlint 
Law Diet,) 

(See No. 238.) 

No. 91. 

Is execution done on Cawdor ? Are not 
Those in commission yet return 'd ? 

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene A.. 

Execution done. The court of king's bench 
may command execution to be done, etc. {2 Hales 
Hist, 409.) 

(SeeNos. 22, 231.) 

Commission. The warrant of letters patent 
which all persons exercising jurisdiction, either or- 
dinary or extraordinary, have to authorize them to 
hear or determine any cause or action. {Tomlin'i 
Law Diet.) 

Duncan, in scene 2, had said to Ross concerning 
the thane of Cawdor : 

• Go pronounce his death. 



THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 137 



No. 92. 

But, in these cases, 
We still have judgment here ; that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 
To plague the inventor : this even-handed justice 
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice 
To our own lips ; he's here in double trust. 

Macbeth, Act 1, Scent 7. 

Cases. (See No. 276.) 

No. 93. 

Much. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, 
It shall make honour for you. 

Ban. So I lose none, 

In seeking to augment it, but still keep 

My bosom franchis'd and allegiance clear, 

1 shall be counseled. 

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1. 

No. 94. 

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried ? Why, worthy thane, 
You do unbend your noble strength, to think 
So brainsickly of things. Go, get some water, 
And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 
Why did you bring these daggers from the place ? 
They must lie there : go, carry them ; and smear 
The sleepy grooms with blood. 

Mach. I'll go no more : 

I am afraid to think what I have done ; 
Look on't again, I dare not. 

Lady M. Infirm of purpose I 

Give me the daggers : The sleeping and the dead, 

Are but as pictures : 'tis the eye of childhood. 

That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, 

For it must seem their guilt. 

MacUthy Act 2, Seen* 2. 



138 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 95. 

They were suborned. 

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 4, 

Suborn. To procure privately; to procure by 
secret collusion. (Johnson.) 

Its general legal meaning is to procure another 
to commit a crime. In practical use, however, it 
means to procure another to take such a false oath 
as constitutes perjury. (4 Bl. Comm. Marg. p. 
137.) 

(SeeNos. 88,286, 304.) 

No. 96. 

He is already named, and gone to Scone 
To be invested. 

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 4. 

Invested. Investiture — the giving possession ; 
investitura est alicujns in siium jus mtroduetio. 

Investitures in their original rise were probably 
intended to demonstrate in conquered countries the 
actual possession of the lord. (Tomlin's Law Diet.) 

To place in possession of a rank or office. (John- 
son.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 139 

No. 97. 

For Bauquo's issue have I filed my mind. 

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Issue. All persons who have descended from 
a common ancestor. (Bouv. Law Diet.) 
(See Nos. 74, 99, 100, 102, 237.) 

No. 98. 

And with thy bloody and invisible hand 
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond. 

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2. 

No. 99. 

Then live, Macduff; What need 1 fear of thee ? 
But yet I'll make assurance double sure, 
And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live ; 
That I may tell pale-hearted fear, it lies, 
And sleep in spite of thunder. AYliat is this. 
That rises like the issue of a king ; 
And wears upon his bab}^ brow the round 
And top of sovereignty ? 

Maqbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Issue. (See Nos. 74, 97, 100, 102, 237.) 

Assurance. (See Nos. G9, 276.) 

Bond. (See Nos. 40, 51, 52, 56, 98, 131, 306.) 

No. 100. 

Macb. That will never be ; 

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree 
Unfix his earth-bound root ? sweet bo dements I good I 
Kebellion's head, rise never, till the wood 
Of Birnani rise, and our high-placed Macbeth 
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 



140 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

To time, and mortal custom. Yet my heart 
Throbs to know one thing; tell rae, if your art 
Can tell so much, shall Banquo's issue ever 
Reign in this kingdom ? 

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Impress. To force into service. (Johnson.) 
Macbeth hopes to "live the lease of nature" and 
"pay his breath to time and mortal custom." 

Issue. (See Nos. 74, 97, 99, 102, 237.) 
Lease. (See Nos. 296, 303, 308.) 



No. 101. 

Thy title is affeer'd. 



Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. 



To Affeere. A law term signifying to con- 
firm. (Johnson.) 

No. 102. 

Since that the truest issue of thy throne, 
By his own interdiction, stands accursed. 

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Issue. (See Nos. 74, 97, 99, 100, 237.) 
No. 103. 



here abjure 



The taints and blames I laid upon myself. 

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Abjure. A forswearing or renouncing by oath. 
(Tomlin's Law Diet.) 
(See No. 40.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 141 



No. 104. 

What concern they 
The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief, 
Due to some single breast ? 

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene.3. 

Fee. Here used in the sense of individual prop- 
erty in the grief. 

No. 105. 

Neither to you, nor any one, having no witness to confirm 
my speech. 

Macbeth, Act 5, Sceru 1. 

No. 106. 

If this, which he avouches, does appear, 
There is no flying hence, nor tarrying here. 

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5. 

Avouch. Evidence; testimony. (Johnson,) 

(SeeNos. 40, 258.) 

No. 107. 

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest controversy, 
Come from the country to be judged by 3'ou, 
That e'er I heard : shall I produce the men ? 

K. John. Let them approach. [Exit Sheriff. 

Our abbies, and our priories, shall pay 
This expedition's charge. 

Re-enter Sherifi:, icith Robert Faulconbridge, and Philip, his 
bastard hrotJier. 

— What men are you ? 

Bast. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman, 
Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son, 
As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge ; 
A soldier, by the honour-giving hand 



142 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field. 

K. John. What art thou ? 

Hob. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. 

K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir ? 
You came not of one mother then, it seems. 

Bant. Most certain of one mother, mighty king ; 
That is well known ; and, as I think, one father: 
But, for the certain knowledge of that truth, 
I put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother ; 
Of that I doubt, as all men's children may. 

Eli. Out on thee, rude man ! thou dost shame thy mother, 
And wound her honour with this diffidence. 

Bast. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it; 
That is ray brother's plea, and none of mine ; 
The which if he can prove, 'a pops me out 
A.t least from fair five hundred pound a year : 
Heaven guard my mother's honour, and my land ! 

K. John. A good blunt fellow. Why, being younger born, 
Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance ? 

Bast. 1 know not why, except to get the land. 
But once he slander'd me with bastard}^ : 
But whether I be as true begot, or no, 
That still 1 la}^ upon my mother's head ; 
But, that 1 am as well begot, ni}- liege, 
(Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me !) 
Compare our faces, and be judge 3^ourself . 
If old sir Robert did beget us both, 
And were our father, and this son like him, 

old sir Robert, father, on m}' knee 

1 give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee. 

K. John. Wh}', what a madcap hath heaven lent us here ! 

Eli. He hath a trick of Creur-de-lion's face, 
The accent of his tongue aft'ecteth him : 
Do you not read some tokens of my son 
In the large composition of this man ? 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 143 



K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts, 
And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrah, speak. 
What doth move you to claim j'our brother" s land ? 

Ba^t. Because he hath a half- face, like my father ; 
With that half-face would he have all my land: 
A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound a year I 

Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd. 
Your brother did employ my father much — 

Bast. AVell, sir, b}^ this }'0U cannot get my land ; 
Your tale must be, how he employ'd my mother. 

Rob. And once dispatch'd him in an embassy 
To Germany, there, with the emperor, 
To treat of high afl:'airs touching that time : 
The advantage of his absence took the king, 
And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's: 
Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak : 
But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores 
Between my father and my mother lay, 
As I have heard my father speak himself, 
When this same lust}' gentleman was got. 
Upon his death-bed he b}' \\\\\ bequeath'd 
His lands to me, and took it, on his death, 
That this, my mother's son, was none of his ; 
And, if he were, he camo into the world 
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time. 
Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine, 
My father's land, as was my father's will. 

K. John. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate ; 
Your father's wife did, after wedlock, bear him: 
And, if she did play false, the fault was hers ; 
Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands 
That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother, 
Who, as you say, took pains to get this son, 
Had of your father claim"d this son for his ? 
In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept 



144 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world ; 
In sooth, he might : then, if he were my brother's, 
My brother might not claim him ; nor your father, 
Being none of his, refuse him : This concludes, — 
My mother's son did get your father's heir; 
Your father's heir must have your father's land. 

Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force, 
To dispossess that child which is not his ? 

Bast. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir. 
Than was his will to get me, as I think, 

King- John, Act 1, Scene 1. 

The trial before King John between the brothers 
Eobert and Philip Faulconbridge, resulted in a de- 
cision based upon the ancient common-law pre- 
sumption in cases of legitimacy. A child born after 
the marriage, and during the husband's life, was 
presumed to be legitimate. It was formerly the 
established doctrine that this presumption in favor 
of legitimacy could not be rebutted, unless the hus- 
band was absent beyond the four seas during the 
whole period of the wife's pregnancy. So, if a 
man be within the four seas and his wife hath a 
child, the law presumeth that it is the child of the 
husband; and against this presumption the law will 
admit no proof. (Co, Litt. S73a; 1 Phill. Ev. marg, 
p, 630; 1 Lord Raym, 395; 1 Salk. 121. See, also, 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 145 

Er shine's Speech in the Banbury Peerage Case, 4 
Erskine's Works, 374.) 

The case as reported by Shakespeare is this: 
Philip states to the king that be supposes himself 
to be the eldest son, and the heir of Sir Kobert, to 
which his younger brother, Eobert, answers that he 
is the son and heir, upon the claim that the elder 
brother, though born in wedlock, was begotten by 
Richard Cceur de Lion, is consequently a bastard, 
and cannot, therefore, inherit. 

The mother of King Richard, who is present at 
trial, sees in Philip the "trick of Coeur de Lion's 
face," recognizes his paternity in the accent of his 
tongue, and reads some tokens of her son in the 
"large composition of the man. " The king examines 
the bastard, and finds him "perfect Richard." The 
brother Robert urges, as evidence, that King Richard 
had at one time sent Sir Robert, the father, on an 
embassy to Germany, and that the king sojourned 
at his father's house in his absence, and overcame 
the chastity of his mother. He urges that large 
lengths of seas and shores between his father and 
his mother lay, and that his father himself had de- 
clared Philip illegitimate. He also states that Philip 
10 



146 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

came into the world full fourteen weeks before the 
course of time, — viz., that Sir Kobert's return from 
Germany would show from its date that Philip was 
begotten fourteen weeks prior thereto, — upon which 
facts he claimed the inheritance. The king decides 
in favor of the legitimacy of Philip, upon the ground 
that his mother bore him after wedlock. Sir Piobert 
was not absent in Germany during the whole period 
of the wife's pregnancy, and for that reason the 
presumption of the legitimacy as it was at that time 
became conclusive. It is also to be remarked that 
the king pays no attention to the declarations said 
to have been made by Sir Robert denying his pa- 
ternity of Philip. In this he rules correctly, for 
nothing is better settled than that the declarations 
of father or mother are inadmissible to bastardize 
their children. 

This grotesque affront to common sense has long 
since ceased to be law. Evidence is admissible in 
our day to attack the legitimacy of a child even 
where the father was infra quatuor maribus during 
the whole period from conception to birth. The 
testimony, however, must be of the most cogent 
character, and leave no room for doubt. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 147 

Some of the ancient decisions on this subject 
read like the wisdom of "crowner's 'quest law." In 
Done and Egertons Case, 1 Rol. Ahr. S58, Hobart, J., 
said that "if the husband be castrated, so that it is 
apparent that he could not by any possibility beget 
issue, and divers years afterwards his wife has 
issue, it should be lawful." And all the judges con- 
curred in the opinion that "if a married woman has 
issue in adultery, still if the husband be able to 
beget issue, and is within the four seas, it is not a 
bastard." 

The most striking decision on this topic of seri- 
ous nonsense is found in Jenkins' Centuries, c. 10, 
pi. 18: "If the husband be in Ireland for a year, 
and the wife in England during that time has issue, 
it is a bastard ; but it seems otherwise now for Scot- 
land, both being under one king." This is not a 
reflection on the virility of residents in Ireland ; it 
is a sapient distinction based upon the fact that at 
that time England and Scotland were one kingdom, 
and therefore the husband was within the realm, 
whereas Ireland was not then incorporated into the 
kingdom. 



148 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 108. 

Upon th}'- cheek lay I this zealous kiss, 
As seal to this indenture of my love. 

King John, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Seal. Wax impressed with a device and at- 
tached to deeds. (Tomli)is Law Diet.) 

(See Nos. 37, 52, 56, 108, 12(3, 158, 204, 207, 256, 274, 288.) 

Indenture. An instrument in writing contain- 
ing a conveyance or contract between two or more 
persons. [Tomlbi's Law Diet.) 

(See Nos. 132, 233, 236, 276.) 

No. 109. 

In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits. 
Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er, 
Did never float upon the swelling tide. 

King John, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Bottoms. (See No. 49.) 

No. 110. 

K. John. From whom hast thou this great commission, 
To draw my answer from thy articles? [France, 

K. Fhi. From that supernal judge, that stirs good thoughts 
In any breast of strong authority, 
To look into the blots and stains of right. 
That judge hath made me guardian to this boy: 
Under whose warrant, I impeach thy wrong, 
And by whose help I mean to chastise it. 

K. John, Alack, thou dost usurp authorit3^ 

K. Phi. Excuse; it is to beat usurping down. 

King John, Act 2, Scene I. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 149 

Impeach. To accuse and prosecute for felony 
or treason. {Tomlin's Laiv Diet.) 

Warrant. (See Nos. 4, 114.) 

No. 111. 

Const. Now shame upon 3^ou, whether she does or no ! 
His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames, 
Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, 
Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee ; 
Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd 
To do him justice, and revenge on you.. 

Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth ! 

Const. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth ! 
Call not me slanderer ; thou, and thine, usurp 
The dominations, royalties, and rights, 
Of this oppressed boy: This is thy eldest son's son, 
Infortunate in nothing but in thee ; 
Thy sins are visited in this poor child ; 
The canon of the law is laid on him, 
Being but the second generation 
Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb. 

King John, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Pee. Certain perquisities allowed to officers in 
the administration of justice as a recompense for 
their labor and trouble. {Tomlins Law Diet.) 

Canon. A law or ordinance of the church. 

This passage evidently refers to the Scripture de- 
nunciation of penalties for the sins of fathers upon 
the children unto the third and fourth generation. 



150 THE LAW IN vSHAKESPEARE. 

This being a spiritual censure, Shakespare uses the 
word "canon." 

(See No. 263.) 

No. 112. 

1 Git. In brief, we are the king of England's subjects ; 
For him, and in his right, we hold this town. 

K. John. Acknowledge then the king, and let me in. 

1 at. That can we not; but he that proves the king, 
To him will we prove \o\?i\ ; till that time, 
Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world. 

K. John. Doth not the crown of England prove the king? 
And, if not that, 1 bring you witnesses, 
Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed, — 

Bast. Bastards, and else. 

K. John. To verify our title with their lives. 

K. Phi. As man}^ and as well-born bloods as those, — 

Bast. Some bastards too. 

K. Phi. Stand in his face, to contradict his claim. 

1 Cit. Till 3'ou compound whose right is worthiest. 
We, for the worthiest, hold the right from both. 

King John, Act 2, Scene 1. 

In this instance King John asserts the law of a 
sovereign de facto, as afterwards declared by the 
statute of Henry VII. The king says : 

Doth not the crown of England prove the king? 

"If there be a king regnant in possession of the 
crown, though he be but rex de facto and not de 
jiirCy yet he is seignior le roy; and if another hath 
right, if he be out of possession, he is not within 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 151 

the meaning of the statute 11 Henry VII, c, i." 
3 Inst. 7. See, also, 1 Hallam's Const, Hist, p, 25, 
It was enacted by the statute of 4 Henry VII., 
c. 24, that "no person that did assist in arms or 
otherwise the king, for the time being, should after- 
wards be impeached therefor, or attainted either 
by the course of law or by parliament ; but if any 
such attainder did happen to be made, it should 
be void and of none effect." 

No. 113. 

Drawn in the flattering table of her e^-^e ! 

Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow ! 
And quartered in her heart ! he doth espy 

Himself love's traitor : this is pity now, 
That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there should be, 
In such a love, so vile a lout as he. 

King John, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Drawn, hanged, and quartered. Punishment for 
treason. 

No. 114. 

Pand. There's law and warrant, lady, for my curse. 

Const. And for mine too ; when law can do no right, 
Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong : 
Law cannot give my child his kingdom here, 
For he, that holds his kingdom, holds the law : 
Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong, 
How can the law forbid my tongue to curse ? 

King John, Act3, Scene 1. 



152 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Bar. (See Nos. 143, 144.) 
Warrant. (See Nos. 4, 110.) 

No. 115. 

A'. Rich. Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster, 
Hast thou, according to thy oath and band. 
Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son, 
Here to make good the boisterous late appeal. 
Which then our leisure would not let us hear, 
Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ? 

Gaunt. I have, my liege. 

K. Rich. Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded him. 
If he appeal the duke on ancient malice ; 
Or worthily as a good subject should, 
On some known ground of treachery in him ? 

Gaunt. As near as 1 could sift him on that argument, 
On some apparent danger seen in him, 
Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. 

K. Rich. Then call them to our presence ; face to face. 
And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear 
The accuser, and the accused, freely speak. 

Richard II., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Make good. Make: to perform or execute, — 
as, to make his law, is to perform that law which 
he has formerly bound himself to. [Tomlins Law 
Diet.) 

No. 116. 

K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flatters us, 
As well appeareth by the cause you come ; 
Namely, to appeal each other of high treason. 
Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object 
Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 153 



Boling. Come I appellant to this princely presence, 
******* 
Disclaiming here Ihe kindred of a king. 

Richard II., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Appeal has two senses : (1) The removal of a 
cause from an inferior court or judge to a superior. 
(2) When spoken of as a criminal prosecution, it 
denotes an accusation by a private subject against 
another for some heinous crime. It was anciently 
permitted to appeal another of high treason. 
(Tomlins Law Diet.) 

Object. To propose as a charge criminal. 
(Johnso7i.) 

Appellant. The party by whom an appeal is 
made. {Tomlins Law Diet.) 
(See Nos. 120, 130.) 

No. 117. 

K. Rich. What doth our cousin lav to Mowbray's charge ? 
It must be great, that can inherit us 
So much as of a thought of ill in him. 

Richard Il.y Act 1, Scene 1. 

No. 118. 

Boling. Further I say, and further will maintain 
Upon his bad life, to make all this good. 

Richard II., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Maintain. (See No. 130.) 

No. 119. 

K. Rich. There shall your swords and lances arbitrate 
The swelling difference of your settled hate; 
10a 



154 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAllE. 



Since we cannot atone you, we shall see 
Justice design the victor's chivalry. 
Lord marshal, command our otiicers at arms 
Be ready to direct these home alarms. 

Richard II., Act 1, Scent 1. 

No. 120. 

K. Rich. Ask him his name : and orderly proceed 
To swear him in the justice of his cause. 

•IT tT TV TV TV tT 

And formally, according to our law, 
Depose him in the justice of his cause. 

Mar. The appellant in all duty greets your highnesa. 

Richard II., Act 1, Scent 3. 

Appellant. (See Nos. 116, 130.) 
Depose. (See No. 163.) 

3Sro. 121. 

1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, 
Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself. 
On pain to be found false and recreant, 

To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, 
A traitor to his God, his king, and him, 
And dares him to set forward to the tight. 

2 Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, 
On pain to be found false and recreant. 

Both to defend himself, and to approve 
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, 
To God, his sovereign, and to him, disloyal ; 
Courageously, and with a free desire. 
Attending ])ut the signal to begin. 

* *■ * * * * 

K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice, 
Whereto thy tongue a party- verdict gave ; 



THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 155 

Wli}^ at our justice seem'st thou then to lower ? 
* * * * * # 

Gaunt. You urg'd me as a judge ; but I had rather, 
You would have bid me argue like a father: — 

Richard II., Act 1, Scene 3. 

Party- verdict. "The verdict in a criminal 

case is either general * * * or partial as to a 
part of the charge, as where the jury convict the 
defendant on one or more counts of the indict- 
ment and acquit him of the residue, or convict him 
on one part of a divisible count and acquit him as 
to the residue." {Archh. Cr. PL d Ev. 146, U7,) 

It is implied that John of Gaunt, though he had 

endeavored to extenuate the offences of his son, 

had admitted his guilt in some respects. He says : 

A partial slander sought 1 to avoid, 

And in the sentence my own life destroyed. 

The trial by battle was at common law a judicial 
mode of determining both civil and criminal cases. 
A woman could take this appeal by a champion. 
It could be demanded in criminal cases, at the elec- 
tion of the appellee, who did so by pleading not 
guilty, throwing down his glove, and declaring 
himself ready to make good the appeal by his body. 
The appellant took up the glove and replied that 
he was ready to make good the appeal, body for 
body. Each party, holding the other by the hand, 



156 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

took an oath, — the accused, that he was not guilty 
of the crime charged ; the accuser, that the ac- 
cused was perjured. Oaths were also taken against 
the employment of sorcery, and the battle was 
waged in a piece of ground sixty feet square, in- 
closed with lists, on one side of which a court was 
erected for the judges. When the court was in 
session proclamation was made, and the battle be- 
gan. It was waged from sunrise until the stars 
appeared in the evening. If the appellant cried 
craven, or the appellee killed him or maintained 
the fight for that time, the appellee was thereby 
acquitted. If the appellee was so far vanquished 
that he could not or would not fight any longer, 
he was adjudged to be hanged immediately, and in 
that case, or if he was killed, his blood was at- 
tainted. (3 BL Comrn. marg. p. 337 : 4 Bl. Comm, 
marg. p. 346.) 

There was a trial by battle in 1571. {Dyer, p, 
801.) 

In 1631 Lord Eea impeached David Kamsay of 
treason, and offered battle in proof. A commis- 
sion was appointed, but the king interposed. 

In 1818 one Abraham Thornton was tried and 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 157 

acquitted upon a capital charge. The brother of 
the person upon whom the offense was alleged to 
have been committed appealed, and the following 
proceedings were had in the court of King's Bench : 
The appellee being brought into court and placed 
at the bar, (the appellant being also in court,) the 
count was read over to him, and he was called 
upon to plead. He pleaded as follows: "Not 
guilty; and I am ready to defend the same by 
my body." And thereupon, taking his glove off, 
he threw it upon the floor of the court. The right 
of battle was most elaborately argued and was 
allowed by the court. The appellant declined to 
accept the challenge, and Thornton was discharged. 
(Ashford V. Thornton, 1 Barn, d; Aid. 405.) The 
reappearance of this buried specter of the law, clad 
in complete steel, after a sepulture of nearly two 
hundred years, caused the abrogation of this right 
by statute 69 Geo. III. c. 46. 

In the case in Shakespeare each party "appeals" 
the other of treason. Bolingbroke throws "down 
his gage" and Norfolk takes it up and hurls down 
his gage. The lists and throne are set out on 
Gosford green. The parties are sworn, but the 



158 THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 

king by throwing down his warder interposes and 
iorbids the fight. 

Walter Scott, lawyer as he was, and learned, 
has not described with more technical accuracy the 
trial of Eebecca by the wager of battle. 

No. 122. 

As were our England in reversion his, 
And he our subjects' next degree in hope. 

Richard II., Act 1, Scent 4. 

Reversion. The residue of an estate left in 
the grantor to commence in possession after the 
determination of some particular estate granted 
out by him. {3 Bl. Comm, marg. p. 175.) 

(See No. 192.) 

Degree. The distance between those who are 
allied by blood; the relations descending from a 
common ancestor. {Bouv. Law Diet.) 

No. 123. 

this dear, dear land 

* * * *■ if 

Is now leased out * * * 
Like to a tenement or pelting farm. 

Richard II., Act 2, Scene 1. 

Tenement. More largely it comprehends not 
only houses but all corporeal inheritances which 
are holden of another. {Tomlins Laiv Diet.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 159 

No. 124. 

York. Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true !) 
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights, 
Call in the letters- patent that he hath 
By his attorneys-general to sue 
His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, 

* 4(f * * * * =* 
K. Rich. Think what you will ; we seize into our hands 

His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands. 

******* 
Willo. And daily new exactions are devised 
As blanks, benevolences. 

******* 
Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm. 

* . * * * * * * 
North. Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown. 

Richard II., Act 2, Scene 1. 

Sue his livery. When the male heir arrived 
at the age of twenty-one or the heir female to the 
age of sixteen, they might sue out their livery or 
ousterlemain ; that is, the delivery of their lands out 
of their guardian's hands. {2 Bl. Comm. marg, 
p. 68.) 

(SeeNos. 127, 135.) 

Homage. All lands were held mediately or 
immediately of the king ; the great nobles usually 
held theirs' immediately. The lord paramount, 
whether the king, or others who held under him, 
and under whom others held by subinfeudation, not 
only bound the tenants, upon their taking posses- 
sion or on their investiture, to certain services, but 



160 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

also took a submission from them by an oath to be 
true to the lord, and this oath was called homage. 

(See Nos. 1, 273.) 

Letters-patent. Are writings of the king, 
sealed, whereby a person was enabled to do or en- 
joy that which otherwise he could not. (Tomlins 
Laiv Diet.) 

(See Nos. 127, 185.) 

Livery and homage were in general necessarily 
personal acts, but in this case it seems that Here- 
ford held letters-patent from the king empowering 
him to perform them by attorneys. "Formerly 
every suitor was obliged to appear in person to 
prosecute or defend his suit, (according to the old 
Gothic constitutions,) unless by special license under 
the king's letters-patent." (3 Bl. Conim. marg. p. 
25.) 

Exaction. A wrong done by an officer or one 
in pretended authority by taking a reward or fee 
for that which the law allows not. {Tomliiis Law 
Diet.) 

Blank. A mode of extortion by which blank 
papers were given to the agents of the crown to be 
filled up as they pleased, to authorize such demands 
as they chose to make. 

Benevolences. Contributions apparently vol- 
untary, but in fact extorted from rich subjects. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 161 

They became an intolerable grievance under Ed- 
ward IV., were abolished under Richard III., but 
were renewed with great rapacity by Henry VII. 
(i Hallams Const. Hist, p, 29,) 

In farm. The usual words of operation in a 
lease are "demise, grant, and to farm let," so that a 
farmer was one who held his lands upon payment 
of a rent. {2 Bl. Comm. marg. p. 317.) 

Pawn. A bailment of personal property on 
security for some debt or engagement. {Story, 
Bailments, § 286.) 



No. 125. 



The banished Bolingbroke repeals himself. 

Richard II., Act 2, Scene 2. 

Repeals. (See Nos. 3, 130, 205.) 

No. 126. 

My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it. 

Richard II., Act 2, Scene 3 , 

Covenant. The agreement of two or more by 
deed in writing, sealed and delivered. (Tomlins 
Laiv Diet.) 

(See Nos. 66, 217.) 

Seals. (See Nos. 37, 52, 56, 108, 15 8, 204, 
207, 256, 274, 288.) 

No. 127. 

Baling. My gracious uncle, let me know my fault ; 
On what condition stands it, and wherein? 
11 



162 'rHE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



York. Even in condition of tlie worst degree, 
In gross rebellion, and detested treason : 
Thou art a banished man, and here art come, 
Before the expiration of thy time. 
In braving arms against thy sovereign. 

Baling. As I was banish'd, 1 was banish'd Hereford ; 

But as I come, I come for Lancaster. 

And, noble uncle, I beseech your grace, 

Look on my w^rongs with an indifferent eye : 

You are my father, for, methinks, in you 

I see old Gaunt alive ; O, then, my father ! 

Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd 

A wandering vagabond ; my rights and royalties 

Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away 

To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born ? 

If that my cousin king be king of England, 

It must be granted, 1 am duke of Lancaster. 

You have a son, Aumerle, my noble kinsman ; 

Had you first died, and he been thus trod down. 

He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father. 

To rouse his wrongs, and chase them to the bay. 

I am denied to sue my liver}^ here, 

And yet my letters-patent give me leave : 

My fathers goods are all distrain'd, and sold : 

And these, and all, are all amiss employ'd. 

What would you have me do ? 1 am a subject, 

And challenge law : attorneys are denied me ; 

And therefore personally 1 lay my claim 

To my inheritance of free descent. 

Richard II., Act 2, Scene 3. 

Distrain. To take and keep any personal chat- 
tel in custody. {Boui\ Lena Diet,) 

Challenge. To claim as due. (Johnson.) 

Sue my livery. (See Nos. 124, 135.) 



THE .LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 163 

Letters-patent. (See Nos. 124, 185.) 
Attorneys. (See Nos. 172, 178, 287.) 
Inheritance. (See No. 63.) 

No. 128. 

Let's choose executors, and talk of wills: 
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath, 
Save our deposed bodies to the ground ? 

Richard II., Act 3, Scene 2. 

Wills. (See Nos. 195, 207, 208, 293.) 
No. 129. 



lie IS come to open 



The purple testament of bleeding war. 

Richard II , Act 3, Scene 3. 

Testament. (See Nos. 150, 195, 207, 293.) 

No. 129a. 

O, I am pressed to death, through want of speaking. 

Richard II., Act 3, Scene 4. 

This obscure line is elucidated by the proceed- 
ings which took place when an accused person re- 
fused to plead to an indictment. He was said to 
stand mute, when, being arraigned for treason or 
felony, he either (1) made no answer at all; or (2) 
answered foreign to the purpose, or with such mat- 
ters as were not allowable, and would not answer 
otherwise ; or (3) having pleaded not guilty, refused 



164 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

to put himself upon the country. {2 Hale, P. C. 
316.) 

In cases of high treason, petit larceny, and all 
misdemeanors, standing mute was equivalent to 
conviction. 

In indictments for other felonies, or for petit 
treason, the prisoner was not looked upon as con- 
victed for standing mute, but for his obstinacy re- 
ceived the sentence of peine forte et dure, which was 
that he be remanded to the prison whence he came, 
and put into a low, dark chamber, and there be laid 
on his back on the floor naked; that there be 
placed upon his body as great a weight of iron as 
he could bear, and more; that he have no suste- 
nance save, on the first day, three morsels of the 
worst bread, and on the second day three draughts 
of such stagnant water that should be nearest the 
prison door; and, in this situation, such should be 
his daily diet till he died, or (as anciently the judg- 
ment ran) till he answered. {Brit, C. C. 4, 22 ; 
Fleta, lib. 1, c, 34, § 33.) 

This proceeding was abolished by statute. {2 
Geo. in., c. 20.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 165 

No. 130. 

Awn. Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd 
With the attainder of his slanderous lips. 
There is m}' gage, the manual seal of death, 
That marks thee out for hell : I say, thou liest, 
And will maintain, what thou hast said, is false. 

* ^ * * * j/f ^ 
Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, 

Till Norfolk be repealed : repealed he shall be. 
And, though mine enemy, restored again 
To all his land and signories ; when he's return'd 
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial. 

* * * * * ■ ^ if^ 

Lords appellants, 
Your differences shall all rest under gage, 
Till we assign you to your days of trial. 

Rihcard II., Act 4, Scene 1. 

Attainder. (See No. 44.) 

Maintain. (See No. 118.) 

Repealed. (See Nos. 3, 205.) 

Assign. The technical term for designating a 
day of trial. 

Appellants. (See Nos. 116, 120.) 

No. 131. 

Bound to himself? what doth he with a bond 
That he is bound to ? Wife, thou art a fool. 

Richard II. , Act 5, Scene 2. 

Bond. (See Nos. 40, 51, 52, 56, 98, 99, 306.) 



166 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 131a. 

O, villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and 

wert taken with the manner. 

1 Henry IV., Act 2, Scene 4. 

Manner. From the French manier, or mainer, 
i. e.y manit tractare. 

To be taken with the manner is where a thief, 
having stolen anything, is taken with the same 
about him, as it were in his hands. {Tomlhi's Law 
Diet.) 

A woman had committed burglary and was taken 
with the "mainour" and brought before the justices 
with the "mainour." John de C. came and sued 
against the woman. 

Spigurnel took the Inquest whether he sued from 
the beginning, so that the woman was attached at 
his suit : and it was found that he had continually 
sued. It was adjudged that he should recover the 
chattels ; but if he had not sued from the commence- 
ment, notwithstanding his now suing, the king would 
have had the chattels. {Year Book, 30 and 31 
Edw. I. Horicood's Ed. 1863, p. 512.) 

(See No. 44a.) 

No. 132. 

Mart. And our indentures tripartite are drawn : 
Which being sealed interchangably 
(A business that this nigiit may execute,) 

Hots. Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here, 
In quantity equals not one of yours. 

1 Henry IV., Act 3, Scene 1. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 167 



Indenture. A writing containing some con- 
tract, agreement, or conveyance between two or 
more persons, being indented at the top, answer- 
able to another part which hath the same contents. 
{Co. Liu. 229.) 

(SeeNos. 108, 233,236,276.) 

Tripartite. Consisting of three parts; as a 
deed between A of the first part, B of the second 
part, and C of the third part. {Boiw. Law Diet.) 

Moiety. (See Nos. 56, 259, 298.) 

No. 133. 

Enfeoff'd himself to popularity. 

1 Henry IV., Act 3, Scene 2. 

Feoffment. A gift or grant of lands to another 
in fee, to him and his heirs, forever, by the delivery 
of seisin and possession of the thing given or granted. 

No. 134. 

And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, 
The archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer, 
Capitulate against us, and are up. 

Henry IV., Act 3, Scene 2. 

Capitulate. To draw up anything in heads 
or articles. (Johnson.) 

No. 135. 

And, when he heard him swear, and vow to God, 
He came but to be duke of Lancaster, 
To sue his livery, and beg his peace ; 
With tears of innocenc}-, and terms of zeal, 



168 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

My father, in kind heart and pit}^ mov'd, 
Swore him assistance, and perform'd it too. 
Now, when the lords and barons of the reahn 
Perceiv'd Northumberland did lean to him, 
The more and less came in with cap and knee, 
Met him in boroughs, cities, villages. 
Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes, 
Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths. 
Gave him their heirs, as pages follow'd him, 
Even at the heels, in golden multitudes. 
He presently, as greatness knows itself. 
Steps me a little higher than his vow 
Made to my father, while his blood was poor, 
Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurg ; 
And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform 
Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees, 
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth : 
Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep 
Over his country's wrongs ; and, by this face, 
This seeming brow of justice, did he win 
The hearts of all that he did angle for. 
Proceeded further ; cut me off the heads 
Of all the favourites, that the absent king 
In deputation left behind him here. 
When he was personal in the Irish war. 

1 Henry IV., Act 4, Scene 3. 

Sue his livery. (See Nos. 124, 127.) 
Edicts. (See Nos. 25, 170, 232.) 

No. 136. 

Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the 
prince for striking him about Bardolph. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 169 



Oh. Just. I sent for you, when there were matters against 
you for your life, to come speak with me. 

Fal. As 1 was then advised by my learned counsel in the 
laws of this land-service, 1 did not come. 

2 Henry IV., Act 1, Scene 2. 

Committed. (See Nos. 77, 141, 146, 166.) 

Matters. (See Nos. 56, 87, 158.) 

Land-service. Service was the duty which the 
tenant owed to the lord by reason of his estate. 
There were many divisions of it in the ancient law, 
as into personal and real, free and base, continual 
or annual, casual and accidental, intrinsic and ex- 
trinsic, etc. (Bracton, lib. 2,) 

Magna CJiarta prescribed that no freeman should 
sell so much of his lands but that of the residue 
the lord may have his services. 

No. 137. 

Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action? 
Fang. It is entered. 

******* 
Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly. 

* ****** 

Fang. A rescue! A rescue! 

2 Henry IV., Act 2, Scene 1. 

Entered an Action. A technical phrase for 
commenced a suit. 

Arrest. (See Nos. 11, 17, 86, 87, 137, 138, 
277a, 295, 300.) 
11a 



170 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



Rescue. The term rescous is likewise applied 
to the forcible delivery of a defendant when ar- 
rested from the officer who is carrying him to 
prison. (8 Bl. Comm. marg, p, 146.) 

No. 138. 

Host. O my most worshipful lord, an't please your grace, 
1 am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my 
suit. 

2 Henry IV., Act 2, Scene 1. 

Arrested. (See Nos. 11, 17, 86, 87, 137, 
277a, 295, 300.) 

No. 139. 

1 will devise matter enough out of this Shallow to keep 
Prince Harry in continual laughter the wearing out of six 
fashions, which is four terms, or two actions, and a' shall 
laugh without intervallums. 

2 Henry IV-, Act 5, Scene 1. 

Terms. Those spaces of time wherein the 
courts of justice are open for all that complain of 
wrongs or injuries, and seek their rights by course 
of law or action. (Tomlins Laiv Diet.) 

(See No. 51K) 

There were formerly four terms in every year, — 
Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas. The is- 
suable terms were Hilary and Trinity terms only, 
and were so called because in them the issues were 
joined and records made up of causes to be tried at 
the Lent and summer assizes which immediately 
follow. {2 LiLAhr. 568,) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 171 

Falstaff wishes to assert that six fashions wear 
out in a year. His meaning is absolutely unintel- 
ligible, except by interpretation of his legal ex- 
pressions. He states correctly the number of 
terms in a year; it appears that two terms are re- 
quired for the trial of one action, and that there 
shall be no vacation in the prince's laughter. 

Intervallums. The vacations between terms. 

No. 140. 

Those precepts cannot be served. 

2 Henry IV., Act 5, Scene 1. 

Precepts. A command in writing by a justice 
of the peace, or other officer, for bringing a person 
or records before him. (Tomlins Law Diet.) 

Served. The action of an officer in executing 
legal process. 

No. 141. 

King. You all look strangely on me: and you most; 

I To the Chief Justice. 
Yon are, 1 think, assur'd I love you not. 

Ch. Just. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly. 
Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me. 

King. No ! 
How might a prince of my great hopes forget 
So great indignities you laid upon me? 
What ! rate, rebuke, and roughlv send to prison, 



172 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



The immediate heir of England ! Was this easy ? 
May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten ? 

Gh. Just. I then did use the person of your father ; 
The image of his power lay then in me ; 
And, in the administration of his law, 
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth, 
Your highness pleased to forget my place, 
The majesty and power of law and justice, 
The image of the king whom 1 presented. 
And struck me in my very seat of judgment ; 
Whereon, as an offender to your father, 
I gave bold way to my authority, 
And did commit you. If the deed were ill. 
Be you contented, wearing now the garland, 
To have a son set your decrees at nought ; 
To pluck down justice from your awful bench, 
To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword 
That guards the peace and safety of your person : 
Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image, 
And mock your workings in a second body. 
Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours ; 
Be now the father and propose a son : 
Hear your own dignity so much profan'd, 
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted, 
Behold 3'ourself so by a son disdain'd. 
And then imagine me taking your part. 
And, in your power, soft silencing your son : 
After this cold considerance, sentence me ; 
And, as you are a king, speak in your state, 
What I have done that misbecame my place, 
My person, or my liege's sovereignty. 

King. You are right, justice, and you weigh this well: 
Therefore still bear the balance and the sword : 
And I do wish your honours may increase, 
Till you do live to see a son of mine 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 173 

Offend you, and obey you, as I did. 

!So shall I live to speak my father's words, 

" Happy am I, that have a man so bold, 

That dares do justice on my proper son ; 

And not less happy, having such a son, 

That would deliver up his greatness so, 

Into the hands of justice." You did commit me : 

For which, I do commit into your hand 

The unstained sword that 3-0U have us'd lo bear; 

With this remembrance, — that you use the same 

With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit, 

As you have done 'gainst me. 

2 Henry IV., Act 5, Scene 2. 

In this scene the law of contempt of court is 
stated by the chief justice, and recognized by the 
king, who when prince had struck the chief justice 
open court, and was committed therefor instanter in 
to prison. This mode of proceeding has been ex- 
ercised from the earliest times. If the contempt 
be committed in the presence of the court the of- 
fender may be instantly apprehended, and impris- 
oned at the discretion of the judges without any 
further proof or examination. (4 Bl. Comm. marg, 
p, 286.) The writer had occasion to use this scene 
in his argument before the senate of Minnesota in 
defense of Judge Page, against whom articles of 
impeachment had been presented. The action of 
the judge, in which he punished in a very summary 



174 THE LAAV IN SHAKESPEARE. 

manner an officer of the court for contempt, was 
made the basis of one of the articles. The pro- 
ceeding was so summary that it was felt neces- 
sary by his counsel to labor greatly in defending 
him on that particular article. Accordingly, Shake- 
speare was pressed into service, as follows : 

"Nearly all of these articles of impeachment are 
so trivial as to seem, at first view, scarcely to war- 
rant the serious discussion they have received. But 
as we have proceeded in our duties we have become 
pursuaded that the danger in the charges is not 
what they allege, but lies in the principle upon 
which they are based; that the danger is not 
to this respondent but to the public itself — for the 
spirit which inspires them all is the spirit of revolt 
against constituted authority. It has appeared in 
that most dangerous form of an attack upon the 
judicial department of the state, upon its integrity, 
upon its independence. There is, after all, a wise 
conservatism in the people, and while they make 
and unmake with a breath the executive and the 
legislature, they instinctively refrain from subject- 
ing the judiciary to the attacks of prejudice or dis- 
affection. They do not require a judge to be pop- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 175 

ular. They require him to be honest and as firm 
as the system of law which he administers. They 
recognize the fact tha.t there must exist in all forms 
of government an ultimate principle of absolutism 
and permanency, an impregnable barrier against 
the fitful mutations of the hour, an inexorable ex- 
pounder of those laws of self-preservation which 
precede the formation of states, which preserve 
property, which secure liberty, which bear with un- 
intermittent force upon the concerns of society with 
all the power of gravitation. In our system the 
judiciary is this principle. It is this cohesive prin- 
ciple of our system which is this day attacked, in 
the person of a judge whose integrity has not been 
questioned even by his enemies. Our entire policy 
is thus assailed at its strongest point. If you de- 
stroy that which is most permanent, the efficacy 
and independence of the rest of the structure will 
fall in ruin without further attack, merely as the 
logical consequence of such a process. Is it not 
well for us to pause? Eude usurpers, aggressive 
kings have paused at this decisive point. Shall we 
be less wise than they? 

It is the prerogative of Shakespeare that what- 



176 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

ever he stoops to touch becomes authoritative in 
quotation. He is the magistrate of both imagina- 
tion and reason. There is scarcely a topic in the 
universe of human thought which that marvelous 
mind has not compassed in its cometary sweep. 
He has walked in the abyss of human nature and 
seen the thousand fearful wrecks, the unvalued 
jewels, and all the lovely and the dreadful secrets 
which lie scattered in the bottom of that illimitable 
sea. The maxims of policy, the rules of war, the 
subtleties of love, the patient forecast of hate, the 
pangs of remorse, the ready wages which jealousy 
always pays to the miserable being it employs — all 
things over which the mind or the nature of man 
has jurisdiction, receive from him their definition 
and expression, excepting those awful topics of the 
hereafter, which, of all the children of men, he, the 
greatest, has been too reverent to touch. He knew 
of the circulation of the blood. In instance after 
instance he has not only used the terms of the law 
with the strictest precision, but has stated its ab- 
strusest principles with entire correctness. So 
wonderfully true is this assertion of his despotic 
empire, that conjecture, in its baffled extremity, has 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 177 

declared that the hidden hemisphere of this world 
of thought, must be Francis Bacon, who, in his 
youth ' took all knowledge for his province,' as if 
it were his heritage. Shakespeare has created an 
immaterial universe which will, like him, survive 
the bands of Orion, and Arcturus and his sons. He 
peculiarly knew the limitations of power and author- 
ity, and enforced them by many constitutional il- 
lustrations. And in that respect he has presented 
no finer exposition than that one where he magni- 
fies the sacredness of judicial authority in the scene 
between Henry V., lately become king, and the 
chief justice, who had formerly committed him for 
contempt. The old magistrate stood trembling be- 
fore the young king, whose life had given no war- 
rant of wisdom or integrity; for he had in his reck- 
less days been the boon companion of Falstaff and 
his disreputable associates. 

Referring to his humiliation by the judge, the 
king asked, 

May this be washed in Lethe and forgotten ? 

The judge interposed this memorable defense : 

1 then did use the person of your father ; 
The image of his power lay then in me I 
And, in the administration of his law, 
12 



178 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Whiles 1 was busy for the commonwealth, 
Your highness pleased to forget my place, 
The majesty and power of law and justice. 
The image of the king whom I presented, 
And struck me in m}^ very seat of judgment, 
Whereon, as an offender to your father, 
1 gave bold waj' to my authority, 
And did commit you. 

It prevailed, for the king replied : 

You are right, justice, and you weigh this well ; 

Therefore still bear the balance and the sword ; 

And I do wish 3'our honors may increase, 

Till 1 do live to see a son of mine 

Offend you, and obey you, as 1 did. 

So shall I live to speak my father's words — 

'Happy am I, that have a man so bold, 

That dares do justice on my proper son : 

And not less happy, having such a son, 

That would deliver up his greatness so 

Into the hands of justice.' You did commit me. 

For which I do commit into 3'our hands 

The unstained sword that you have used to bear, 

With this remembrance : That you use the same 

With the like bold, just and impartial spirit 

As you have done 'gainst me. 

Of all the illustrations which Shakespeare has 
given to authority, in its highest or lowest estate, 
I know of none finer than this. Not Eichard, sit- 
ting upon the ground and telling sad stories of the 
death of kings when all his fleeting glory seemed 
but a pompous shadow; not Prospero, the ruler of 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 179 

two realms, who by virtue of his sway over his im- 
material kingdom looked upon the great globe it- 
self as a phantasma merely, which would vanish 
with all its cloud-capped towers, and gorgeous pal- 
aces, and solemn temples ; not Lear, invoking from 
the elements themselves the abdicated regalities of 
his sovereignty, seem to me so imposing as this 
youth, once so wayward, respecting the majesty of 
the law in the person of its faithful servant. You can 
bow before this mob. You can lead an attack which 
will be repeated upon every department of our gov- 
ernment by all the blatant and riotous law-breakers 
of time to come, who may rise up in rebellion against 
statutes enacted for their condemnation, against 
magistrates who condemn them. Or you can make 
enduring the endangered functions of the state. 
You can quell forever that arrogant spirit of insub- 
ordination, before which no judge is sacred, no 
constitutional provisions are obstacles. Say to this 
respondent — 

Therefore still bear the balance and the sword ; 

* * ^ ^ * * 

The unstained sword which you have used to bear 
With this rememl)rance : That you use the same 
With the like bold, just and impartial spirit 
As you have done. 



180 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

— and this proceeding will live memorable in our 
history as one of its preservative events." 
(Trial of Judge Page, vol. 3, p. 248.) 

Committed. (See Nos. 77, 136, 146, 166.) 

No. 142. 

Cant. My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urg'd, 
Which, in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign 
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, 
But that the scambling and unquiet time 
Did push it out of further question. 

Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now ? 

Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us, 
We lose the better half of our possession : 
For all the temporal lands, which men devout 
By testament have given to the church, 
Would they strip from us. 

Henry V., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Bill. An instrument presented by a member or 
committee of a legislative body for its approbation, 
so that it may become a law or be rejected. After 
it has gone through both houses and received the 
constitutional sanction of the chief magistrate, it 
becomes a law. (Bouv. Laiv Diet.) 

The words "bill," "urged," "passed," are used 
here with the easy familiarity of one who knows 
the terms applicable to the progress and conse- 
quences of a bill. 

(See No. 5.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 181 

Temporal Lands. All things which an arch- 
bishop or a bishop have by livery from the king, as 
manors, lands, tithes, etc. {1 Rol. p. 881; 1 BL 
Comrn. marg. p. 282.) 

The bill in question was proposed by the com- 
mons in the reign of Henry IV., who had required 
them to grant supplies. They proposed that he 
should seize all the temporalties of the church and 
employ them as a perpetual fund to serve the ex- 
igencies of the state. The archbishop of Canter- 
bury urged that the clergy, although they went not 
in person to the war, sent their vassals and ten- 
ants, while they themselves were employed night 
and day in offering up prayers for the happiness 
and prosperity of the state. The Speaker replied 
that these prayers were a very slender supply. 
{See 3 Hume, p. 68.) 

No. 143. 

M}' learned lord, we pra^- jou to proceed, 

And justly and religiously unfold 

AVhy the law Salique, that the}' have in France, 

Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim : 

And, God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, 

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading. 

Henry F., Act 1, Scent 2. 

Bar. (See Nos. 114, 144.) 



182 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Keading. This is the one law word to express 
the exposition of a statute. Francis Bacon per- 
formed such a task upon the statute of uses, and it 
is entitled "the learned reading of Mr. Francis 
Bacon, one of her majesty's counsel at law, upon 
the statute of uses, being his double reading to the 
honorable society of Gray's Inn, 42 Eliz." 

Wrest. To put a forced construction upon an 
authority, statute, or precedent. 

(See No. 56.) 

No. 144. 
Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and yon peers, 
That owe your lives, your faith, and services, 
To this imperial throne ; there is no bar 
To make against your highness' claim to France, 
But this, which they produce from Pharamond, 
^" In teiTctm Salicani midieres ne succedant, 
No woman shall succeed in Salique land : " 
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze, 
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond 
The founder of this law and female bar. 
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm, 
That the land Salique lies in Germany, 
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe : 
Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons, 
There left behind and settled certain French ; 
Who, holding in disdain the German women, 
For some dishonest manners of their life, 
Establish'd there this law ; to wit, no female 
Should be inheritrix in Salique land ; 
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, 
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen. 
Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 183 

Was not devised for the realm of France : 

Nor did the French possess the Salique land 

Until four hundred one and twenty years 

After defunction of king Pharamond, 

Idly suppos'd the founder of this law ; 

Who died within the year of our redemption 

Four hundred twenty-six : and Charles the Great 

Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French 

Beyond the river Sala, in the year 

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, 

King Pepin, which deposed Childeric, 

Did, as heir general, being descended 

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair, 

Make claim and title to the crown of France. 

Hugh Capet also, that usurped the crown 

Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male 

Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great, 

To fine his title with .some show of truth 

(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,) 

Convey'd himself as heir to the lad}- Lingare, 

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son 

To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son 

Of Charles the Great. Also king Lewis the tenth, 

Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, 

Could not keep quiet in his conscience, 

Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied 

That fair queen Isabel, his grandmother. 

Was lineal of the lady Ermengare, 

Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain : 

By the which marriage, the line of Charles the Great 

Was re-united to the crown of France. 

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, 

King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim, 

King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear 

To hold in right and title of the female : 



184 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

So do the kings of France unto this day ; 
Howbeit the}^ would hold up this Salique law, 
To bar your highness claiming from the female, 
And rather choose to hide them in a net, 
Than amply to imbar their crooked titles 
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. 

Henry V., Act 1, Scene 2. 

Law Salique. A law by which males only 
were allowed to inherit. This rule has ever ex- 
cluded females from the throne of France. It was 
decreed by Pharamond, and was part of a code of 
laws of the Salians, a people of Germany. 

"There was a French gentleman speaking with an 
English of the law Salique, that women were ex- 
cluded from inheriting the ci:own of France. The 
English said, *Yes; but that were meant of the 
women themselves, not of such males as claimed by 
women.' The French gentleman said, * Where do 
you find that gloss?' The English answered. 'I'll 
tell you, sir ; look on the back side of the record of 
the law Salique, and there you shall find it in- 
dorsed;' implying there was no such thing as the 
law Salique, but that it is a mere fiction." (Bacon s 
Apophthegms, No. 184.) 

The argument of the archbishop that this law 
was not designed for France, is, in its order, reason 
and arrangement, thoroughly forensic and compact. 

Bar. (See Nos. 114, 143.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 185 

No. 144a. 

She hath herself not only well defended, 
But taken and hnpouuded, as a stray, 
The king of 8eots. 

Henry V., Act 1, Scene 2. 

Beasts of a stranger could be taken by way of 
distraint by the owner of grounds into which they 
were found straying. The duty of the taker was 
to drive them to some pound and there impound 
them. (3 Bl, Comm. marg. pp, 7^ 12,) 

Stray. (See No. 158.) 

No. 145. 

The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum, 
Delivering o'er to executors pale 
The lazy yawning drone. 

Henry K., Act 1, Scene 2, 

No. 146. 

Enlarge the man committed yesterday, 

Henry V., Act 3, Scene2. 

Enlarge. To release from confinement. (John- 
son.) 

Committed. (See Nos. 77, 136, 141, 166.) 

No. 147. 

You know, how apt our love was, to accord 
To furnish him with all appertinents 
Belonging to his honour ; and this man 
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd 
And sworn unto tlie practices of France, 
To kill us here in Hampton. 

Henry V., Act 2, Scene 2. 

12a 



186 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 148. 

K. Hen. Their faults are open, 
Arrest them to the answer of the law ; 
And God acquit them of their practices ! 

Exe. 1 arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard, 
earl of Cambridge. 

1 arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry lord 
Scroop of Masham. 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, 
knight of Northumberland. 

******* 

K. Hen. God quit 3'^ou in his mercy ! Hear your sentence. 
You have conspired against our royal person, 
Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers 
Keceiv'd the golden earnest of our death. 

Henry V., Act 2, Scene 2. 

The use of the words "arrest," "acquit," and 
"earnest," is most accurate. The king states the 
offense of high treason with perfect precision. 

Earnest. (See No. 90.) 

No. 149. 

K. Hen. So, if a son, that is by his father sent about mer- 
chandise, do sinfull}^ miscarry upon the sea, the imputation 
of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his 
father that sent him : or if a servant, under his master's com- 
mand, transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers, 
and die in many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the 
business of the master the author of the servant's damnation : 
But this is not so : the king is not bound to answer the par 
ticular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the 
master of his servant ; for they purpose not their death, when 
they purpose their services. Besides, there is no king, bo 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 187 

his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitreinent of 
swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Some, per- 
adventure, have on them the guilt of premeditated and con- 
trived murder; some, of beguiling virgins with the broken 
seals of perjury: some, making the wars their bulwark, that 
have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and 
robbery. Now, if these men have defeated the law, and out- 
run native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they 
have no wings to fly from God : war is his beadle ; war is his 
vengeance ; so that here men are punished, for before-breach 
of the king's laws, in now the king's quarrel; where they 
feared the death, they have borne life away ; and where they 
would be safe, they perish : then if the^- die unprovided, no 
more is the king guilty of their damnation, than he was be- 
fore guilty of those impieties for which they are now visited. 
Every subject's duty is the kings ; but every subject's soul is 
his own. Therefore, should every soldier in the wars do as 
every sick man in his bed, wash every mote out of his con- 
science : and dying so, death is to him advantage ; or not dy- 
ing, the time was blessedly lost, wherein such preparation was 
gained: and, in him that escapes, it were not sin to think, 
that making God so free an offer, He let him outlive that day 
to see His greatness, and to teach others how they should 
prepare. 

Henry F., Act 4, Scene 1. 

The tone' of this exposition is thoroughly legal. 
Here again occurs the unaffected use of such fo- 
rensic phrases as "miscarry upon the sea;" "trans- 
porting a sum of money;" "a cause come to the 
arbitrement of swords;" and to "try it out;" "the 
broken seals of perjury;" "before-breach of the 
king's laws." 



188 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE.' 

Cause. (See Nos. 13, 60, 184, 200, 277a.) 
Guilty. (See Nos. 174, 275, 271.) 
Perjury. (See No. 38.) 

No. 150. 

And so, espoused to death, with blood he sealed 
A testament of noble-ending love. 

Henry 7., Act 4, Scent 6. 

Sealed. (See Nos. 259, 262.) 
Testament. (See Nos. 127, 195, 207, 293.) 

No. 151. 

I do, thou most usurping proditor, 
And not protector of the king, or realm. 

1 Henry VI., Act 1, Scene 3. 

Proditor. The technical word for tr/dtor, used 
in indictments when they were written in Latin, — 
proditorie, traitorously. 

No. 152. 

3fay. Nought rests for me in this tumultuous strife, 
But to make open proclamation : 
Come, officer; as loud as e'er thou canst. 
Cry. 

Off. All manner of men, assembled here in arms this day, 
against God's peace and the kincfs, tee charge and command 
you, in his highness^ name, to repair to your several dwelling- 
places; and not to wear, handle, or uss, any sword, weapon, 
or dagger, henceforward, upon pain of death. 

Henry VI., Act I, Scene 3. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 189. 

The following is the old form of proclamation : 
"Our sovereign lord, the king, chargeth and com- 
mandeth all persons here assembled immediately 
to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to 
their habitations, or to their lawful business, on 
pain of death. 

God save the king." 

No. 153. 

^om. Was not thy father, Richard, earl of Cambridge, 
For treason executed in our hite king's days? 
And, by his treason, stand'st not thou attainted, 
Corrupted and exempt from ancient gentry ? 
His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood, 
And, till thou be restor'd, thou art a yeoman. 

Flan. My father was attached, not attainted, 
Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor. 

1 Henri/ V^-> Act 2, Scene 4. 

Attainted. (See Nos. 44, 130.) 

Attach. (See Nos. 254, 257, 280.) 

Exempt. Cut off. (Johnson.) 

The corruption of blood in descendants of an at- 
tainted ancestor is here charged upon Plantagenet, 
whose answer is a refutation of the imputation 
upon clear legal grounds. Attainder was a conse- 
quence of sentence of death by judgment of a court, 
and not before. "After conviction only a man is 
liable to none of these disabilities, for there is still 
in contemplation of law a possibility of his inno- 



190 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

cence. Something may be offered in arrest of judg- 
ment; the indictment maybe erroneous, which will 
render his guilt uncertain, and thereupon the pres- 
ent conviction may be quashed. He may obtain a 
pardon or be allowed the benefit of clergy. But, 
when judgment is once pronounced, both law and 
fact conspire to prove him completely guilty. Upon 
judgment of death, therefore, and not before, the 
attainder of a criminal commences." {4 Bl. Comm. 
marg. pp. 380, 381.) Plantagenet asserts that his 
father had merely been attached, but not attainted; 
that is, that the prosecution had not resulted in 
any judgment. Here is also displayed knowledge 
of another minute legal particular. If the at- 
tainted person were noble or gentle before, he and 
all his children and posterity were by the attainder 
made base and ignoble. (Co. Litt. 391h.) Conse- 
quently, Plantagenet, if his father had been at- 
tainted, was thereby cut off from the "gentry" and 
became a "yeoman," who is a person next in order 
to a gentleman. {Tomlins Law Diet.) For an 
account of the trial of the earl of Cambridge by a 
court of eighteen barons commissioned to try him, 
and of its irregularities, see 3 Hume, p. 76, 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 191 



No. 154. 

I had in charge, at my depart for France, 
As procurator to your excellence. 

2 Henry VI., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Procurator. One who hath a charge com- 
mitted to him by any person, in which general sig- 
nification it hath been applied to a vicar or lieu- 
tenant who acts instead of another, and we read of 
procurator regni. {Tomlins Law Diet.) 

No. 155. 

Suff. Here arc the articles of contracted peace, 
Between our sovereign and the French king .Charles, 
For eighteen months concluded by consent. 

Glo. [Readii] Imprimis, It is agreed between the French king^ 
Charles, and William de la Pole, inarquess of Suffolk, ambas- 
sador for Henry king of England, that the said Henry shall 
espouse the lady Margaret, daughter unto Reignier king of Na- 
ples, Sicilia, and Jerusalem, and crown her queen of England, 
ere the thirtieth of May next ensuing. Item, lliai the duchy 
of Anjou and the county of Maine, shall be released and delivered 
to the king her father 

K. Hen. Uncle, how now ? 

Glo. Pardon me, gracious lord; 

Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart. 
And dimm'd mine eyes, that I can read no further. 

K. Hen. Uncle of Winchester, I pray, read on. 

Win. Item, It is further agreed between them, that the 
duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be released and delivered over 
to the king her father, and she sent over of the king of England^s 
own proper cost and charges, without having dowry. 

2 Henry VI., Act \, Scene 2. 

Gloster speaks of a "contracted peace," "con- 
cluded" by "articles. " The instrument is not in the 



192 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAKE. 

form of treaties, but it is in the law form of a private 
agreement. It seems to be rather marriage arti- 
cles, by which the cessions made to the king of Na- 
ples are to be in lieu of his daughter's dowry. The 
duchies are to be "released and delivered" over, 
and the lady is to be sent over "at the proper costs 
and charges" of her father. 

No. 156. 

Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous; 

Virtue is cliolv'd with foul ambition, 

And charity chas'd hence by rancour's hand ; 

Fell subornation is predominant, 

And equity exil'd your highness' land. 

2 Henrrj VI., Act 3, Scene 1. 

Subornation. (See Nos. 88, 95, 286, 291, 
304.) 

Equity. (See No. 239.) 

No. 157. 

Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloster, 
Than from true evidence, of good esteem, 
He be approv'd in practice culpable. 

2 Henry VI., Act 3, Scene 2. 

Practice. This term is sometimes ebaployed in 
an unfavorable sense to signify fraud or bad prac- 
tice. [Tomlins Law Diet.) 

Evidence. (See Nos. 170, 285.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 193 

No. 158. 

Cade. — the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops ; and 1 
will make it felon}-, to drink small beer : all the realm shall 
be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfr}- go to grass. 

Lick. The first thing we do, let's kill all the law3'ers. 

Cade. Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable 
thing, that of the skin of an innocent laml) should be made 
parchment ? That parchment, being scribbled o'er, should 
undo a man ? Some say the bee stings : but 1 say, 'tis the bee's 
wax, for I did but seal once to a thing, and 1 was never mine 
own man since. How now ? who's there ? 

Enter some bringing in the Clerk of Chatham. 
Smith. The clerk of Chatham : he can write and read, and 
cast accompt. 

Cade. O monstrous ! 

Smith. We took him setting of boys' copies. 

Cade. Here's a villain ! 

Smith. H' as a book in his pocket, with red letters in't. 

Cade. Nay then he is a conjuror. 

Dick. Nay, he can make obligations, and write court-hand. 

2 Henry VI., Act 4, Scene 2. 

******** 

Cade. So, sirs : Now go some and pull down the Savoy ; 
others to the inns of court ; down with them all. 

Dick. I have a suit unto your lordship. 

Cade. Be it a lordship, thou shalt have it for that word. 

Dick. Only, that the laws of England may come out of your 
mouth. 

John. Mass, 'twill be sore law then; for he was thrust in 
the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not whole 3 et. [Aside. 

Smith. Naj', John, it will be stinking law; for his breath 
stinks with eatina: toasted cheese. [Aside. 

Cade. 1 have thought upon it, it shall be so. Away, burn 
all the records of the realm ; my mouth shall be the parlia- 
ment of England. 
13 



194 THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 



John. Then we are like to have biting statutes, unless his 
teeth be pulled out. [Aside. 

Cade. And henceforward all things shall be in common. 

Enter a Messenger. 
Mess. My lord, a prize, a prize ! here's the lord Say, which 
sold the towns in France ; he that made us pay one and twenty 
fifteens, and one shilling to the pound, the last subsidy. 

Enter George Bevis, iDith the Lord Say. 

Cade. Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times. — Ah, thou 
say. thou serge, nay, thou buckram lord ; now art thou within 
point-blank of our jurisdiction regal. What canst thou an- 
swer to my majesty, for giving up of Normandj' unto mon- 
sieur Basimecu, the dauphin of France ? Be it known unto 
thee by these presence, even the presence of lord Mortimer, 
that 1 am the besom that must sweep the court clean of such 
filth as thou art. Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the 
youth of the realm, in erecting a grammar-school ; and 
whereas, before, our fore-fathers had no other books but the 
score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used ; and, 
contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast built a 
paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face, that thou hast 
men about thee, that usually talk of a noun, and a verb, and 
such abominable words, as no Christian ear can endure to 
hear. Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor 
men before them about matters that they were not able fo 
answer. Moreover, thou hast put them in prison ; and be- 
cause the}' could not read, thou hast hanged them; when, in- 
deed, only for that cause they have been most worthy to live. 
Thou dost ride on a foot- cloth, dost thou not ? 

* ^ ^ * * ^ * 

— there shall not a maid be married, but she shall pay to me 
her maidenhead ere they have it: Men shall hold of mew 
capite; and we charge and command, that their wives be as 
free as heart can wish, or tongue can tell. 

2 Henry VI., Act 4, Scene?. 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 195 

Common. (See Nos. 158, 208.) 

Cade's announcement of his intention to reform 
the laws by killing the lawyers, and to make it fel- 
ony to drink small beer; his discourse on the de- 
structive effect of parchment, wax, and seals ; the 
charge against the clerk of Chatham that he can 
make obligations and write court-hand; the order 
to pull down the inns of court; the petition of 
Dick, who has a suit to Cade, that the laws of 
England may come out of Cade's mouth ; the 
command to burn all the records of the realm, 
and the declaration that his mouth shall be the 
parliament of England; the fear of biting stat- 
utes; and the decree that all things shall thence- 
forth be in common, — are expressions such as a 
lawyer would naturally put into the mouth of 
a brutal and ignorant insurgent. So, when Lord 
Say is brought before him. Cade's language is 
judicial. He asserts his "jurisdiction regal." Say 
has "traitorously" erected a grammar school, and 
the use of this word is not only correct, but in- 
dispensable; because "the treason must be laid 
to have been committed traitorously, this word 
being indispensably necessary." {Toml'm's Law 



196 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Diet. " Treason, ") What Say did, is charged to have 
been "contrary to the king, his crown, and dig- 
nity." His acts will be proved to his face. Cade 
has a fling at the benefit of clergy. This was a 
device by which exemption from punishment of all 
felonies beneath treason was secured in the tem- 
poral courts. The clergy originally had exemption 
from all secular jurisdiction. In the course of 
time it was established by law that any one who 
could read should therefore be accounted a clerk, 
(clericus,) and allowed the benefit of clergy, though 
he never was in holy orders. All laymen who were 
allowed this privilege, were, on claiming it by a 
plea before conviction or after conviction, on mo- 
tion in arrest of judgment, simply burned with a 
hot iron on the left thumb and were discharged 
from the secular court and turned over to the eccle- 
siastical courts, which, by a fictitious purgation, 
which consisted in the accused reading the open- 
ing lines of the Vulgate version of the fiftieth Psalm, 
restored the accused to credit, to his liberty, his 
lands, and capacity to purchase. {4 Bl. Comm. c. 

Chapter 50 of the Vulgate is the same with chap- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 197 

ter 51, King James' translation : Miserere mei Deus, 
secundum maguam misericordiam tuam. 

Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, 
dele iniquitatem meam. 

In 1859, Bilanski, who had been found guilty of 
murdering her husband, claimed the benefit of 
clergy; but her right was denied by the supreme 
court of Minnesota. Justice Fiandrau, in deliver- 
ing the opinion, gave a learned exposition of the 
law on this subject and its history. (State v. Bi- 
lanski, S Minn. 246.) 

Cade's atrocious announcement as to the maidens 
is an assertion of a barbarous right once claimed 
by lords over the brides of tenants. It is said by some 
authors to have been the origin of the English cus- 
tom of descent which obtained in certain localities, 
called borough English, by which the youngest son, 
and not the eldest, succeeded to the burgage tene- 
ment on the death of his father, as being more 
probably legitimate than his elder brother. Black- 
stone says that he cannot learn that this custom 
prevailed in England, although it certainly did in 
Scotland, under the name of mercheta. Cade un- 
doubtedly had this atrocious custom in his mind, 



198 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

and in regard to this jus stupri he puns infamously 
by the use of the words in capites — tenants in capite 
being those who hold directly under the king. — 
Caput, head, (maidenhead.) 

Court-hand. The old Gothic or Saxon hand 
or manner of writing used in records and judicial 
proceedings. {Imperial Diet.) 

Common. (See No. 47, 307.) 

Matters. (See No. 87, 136.) 

Obligations. (See No. 4.) 

Parchment. (See No. 276.) 

Seal. (See Nos. 37, 52, 56, 108, 126, 204, 207, 
256, 274, 288.) 

No. 159. 

Here's the lord of the soil come to seize me for a stray, 
for entering his fee-simple without leave. 

2 Henry VI., Act 4, Scene 10. 

Cade, when he sees Iden approaching, in whose 
garden he has taken refuge, uses technical language, 
calling himself a stray, liable to seizure for entering 
the premises. 

Stray. (See No. 144a.) 

Fee-simple. (See Nos. 6, 63, 247, 312.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 199 

No. 160. 

York. He rose against him, being his sovereign, 
And made him to resign his crown perforce. 

War. Suppose, my lords, he did it unconstrain'd. 
Think you, 'twere prejudicial to his crown ? 

Exe. No ; for he could not so resign his crown, 
But that the next heir should succeed and reign. 

3 Henry VI., Act 1, Scene 1. 

This expresses the constitutional principle in 
regard to the descent of the crown. The king, in 
contemplation of law, never dies, nor is there by 
resignation or abdication a moment's interregnum, 
for the heir in any such event instantly becomes 
king de jure. The king cannot grant the succes- 
sion. (1 Bl. Comm. marg. p. 191 et seq.) 

(SeeNos. 161, 162.) 

No. 161. 

War. Why should you sigh, my lord ? 
K. Hen. Not for mj'.^elf, lord Warwick, but my son, 
Whom I unnaturally shall disinherit. 
But, be it as it may : 1 here entail 
The crown to thee, and to thine heirs forever ; 
Conditional 1}% that here thou take an oath 
To cease this civil war, and, whilst I live, 
To honour me as thy king and sovereign ; 
And neither by treason, nor hostilit}^ 
To seek to put me down, and reign thyself. 

3 Henrij VI., Act 1, Scene 1. 

This is an attempt to grant the crown, subject 
to a condition subsequent. The use of the word 



200 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

"entail" here seems to be inaccurate, for though 
the use of the word "heirs" is necessary to create 
a fee, so the word "body" or some other words of 
procreation are necessary to make it a fee-tail. A 
gift to a man and his heirs, male or female, is an 
estate in fee-simple and not in fee-tail. {2 Bl. 
Comm. marg. p, 114,) 

King Lear, in settling the succession to his king- 
dom, was more accurate, using the word "issue." 

Disinherit. (See No. 162.) 
Entail. (See Nos. 63, 237.) 
Heirs forever. (See No. 208.) 

No. 162. 

Prince. Father, you cannot disinherit me : 
If you be king, why should I not succeed ? 

***** * 

Q. Mar. Until that act of parliament be repealed, 
Whereby my son is disinherited. 

3 Henry VI., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Here again the constitutional principle is as- 
serted. But it is met by another constitutional 
principle, that the right of succession to the crown 
may from time to time be changed or limited by 
act of parliament. (1 BL Comm. p. 191.) 

Disinherit. (See No. 161.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 201 

Repealed. (See No. 198.) 
Act. (See Nos. 56, 198.) 

No. 163. 

Rich. An oath is of no moment, being not took 
Before a true and lawful magistrate, 
That hath authorit}" over him that swears: 
Henry had none, but did usurp the place; 
Then, seeing 'twas he that made 3'ou to depose, 
Your oath, my lord, is vain and frivolous. 

3 Henry VI., Act 1, Scene 2. 

Oaths. If administered by persons in a pri- 
vate capacity, or not duly authorized, they are co- 
ram non judice, and void. (5 Inst. 165 ; 4 Inst, 

278.) 

Depose. (See No. 120.) 

No. 164. 

But for the rest, you tell a pedigree 

Of threescore and two years ; a silly time 

To make prescription for a kingdom's worth. 

3 Henry VL, Act 3, Scene . 

Prescription. A title acquired by use and 
time, and allowed by law ; as when a man claims 
anything he, his ancestors, or they whose estate he 
hath, have had, or used it all the time whereof no 
memory is to the contrary. (Co. Litt. 114.) 

This time of memory commenced from the be- 
ginning of the reign of Kichard I., by the statute 
13a 



202 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

of Westminster, (5 Edw. 1.) By the statute of 
32 Henry VIII., the period was fixed at sixty years. 

No. 165. 

Our sister shall be Edward's : 
And now forthwith shall articles be drawn 
Touching the jointure that your king must make 
Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised. 

3 Henry VI., Act 3, Scene 3. 

Articles. (See Nos. 176, 259, 261.) 

Dowry. (See No. Q^.) 

Jointure. A settlement of lands and tene- 
ments made to a woman in consideration of mar- 
riage. 

Under the rule that a right or title to a freehold 
cannot be barred, at law, by acceptance of a collat- 
eral satisfaction, (Co. Litt, Q6,) jointures at com- 
mon law were no bar of dower, until the statute of 
27 Henry YIII., c, 10. (4 Rep, 3.) 

No. 166. 

Clar. His majesty, 

Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed 
This conduct to convey me to the Tower. 

Glo. Upon w hat cause ? 

Clar. Because my name is George. 

Olo. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours ; 
He should, for that, commit your godfathers. 

Richard III., Act I, Scene 1. 

Commit. (See Nos. 77, 136, 141, 146, 166.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 203 

No. 167. 

Clar. Heard you not, what an humble suppliant 
Lord Hasting was to her for his delivery ? 

Glo. Humbly complaining to her deit}^ 
Got my lord chamberlain his liberty. 

Richard III., Act 1, Scene 1. 

No. 168. 

To both their death shalt thou be accessary, 

Richard III., Act 1, Scene 2. 

Accessary. (See Nos. 291, 297.) 

No. 169. 

Keep the oath that we administer. 

Richard III,, Act 1. Seem 3. 

Oath. (See No. 267.) 

No. 170. 

Clar. Are you called forth from out a world of men, 
To slay the innocent ? What is my offense ? 
Where is the evidence that doth accuse me ? 
What lawful quest have given their verdict up 
Unto the frowning judge'? or who pronounc'd 
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death ? 
Before I be convict by course of law, 
To threaten me with death is most unlawful. 
I charge you, as you hope to have redemption, 
By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins, 
That 3'ou depart, and lay no hands on me ; 
The deed you undertake is damnable. 

1 Murd. What we will do, we do upon command. 

2 Murd. And he, that hath commanded, is our king. 
Clar'. Erroneous vassal ! the great King of kings 

Hath in the table of His law commanded, 
That thou shalt do no murder; Wilt thou then 



204 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Spurn at His edict, and fulfil a man's ? 

Take heed ; for He holds vengeance in his hand, 

To hurl upon their heads that break His law. 

Richard III., Act 1, Scene 4. 

The demands of Clarence are those of one inti- 
mate with the phraseology of criminal trials, their 
order of procedure, and the rights of accused per- 
sons. More than this, there appears here in that 
majestic citation of the commandment of the great 
King of kings that full sense which Shakespeare had 
of the sacredness of law and of judicial functions. 

Quest. Inquest ; inquisition or inquiry on the 
oath of an impaneled jury. [Tomlin's Laiv Diet.) 

(See No. 298.) 

Edict. (See Nos. 25, 135, 232.) 
Evidence. (See Nos. 157, 285.) 

No. 170a. 

Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen, 
Onl}' for saying, he would make his son 
Heir to the crown ; meaning, indeed, his house, 
Which, by the sign thereof, was termed so. 

Richard III., Act 3, Scene 5. 

This passage refers to an event often cited in the 
books in discussing the history of the law of treason, 
in which these words were construed as sufficient to 
constitute the crime. The sufferer was a citizen 
of London. (4 Bl. Comm. marg.}!. 79.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 205 

No. 171. 

Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer, 
Only reserv'd their factor, to buy souls, 
And send them thither. 

Richard III., Act 4, Scene 4. 

Factor. (See No. 84.) 

No. 172. 

Duch. Why should calamity be full of words ? 

Q. Eliz. Windy attorneys to their client woes, 
Airy succeeders of intestate joys, 
Poor breathing orators of miseries ! 

Richard III., Act 4, Scene 4. 

This conceit could never have occurred to a writer 
whose knowledge of law was only of that uncertain 
kind which every layman has or thinks he has, yet 
who would be very cautious how he used it for 
such purposes of illustration or personation. 

Attorney. (See Nos. 127, 178, 287.) 

Client. (See No. 287.) 

No. 173. 

Flatter my sorrows with report of it ; 

Tell me, what state, what dignit}', what honour, 

Canst thou demise to any child of mine ? 

Richard III., Act 4, Scene 4. 

Demise. Is a conveyance either in fee, for life, 
or for years. According to Chief Justice Gibson, 
the word strictlv denotes a posthumous grant, and 
no more. (5 iVhart. 278.) 



206 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 174. 

Perjur}^, perjury, in the high'st degree ; 
Murder, stern murder in the dir'st degree ; 
All several sins, all us'd in each degree, 
Throng to the bar, crying all,— Guilty ! guilty! 

Richard III., Act 5, Scene 3. 

In this thrilling soliloquy, Kichard, after the aw- 
ful procession of accusing spirits has vanished, ar- 
raigns himself as a criminal at the bar, with all his 
crimes confronting him with their testimony of his 
guilt. 

Bar. A place in a court having criminal juris- 
diction to which prisoners are called to plead to the 
indictment. (Bouv, Law Diet,) 

(See No. 178.) 

Guilty. (See Nos. 149, 275, 291.) 

No. 175. 

For France hath flawed the league, and hath attached our 
merchants' goods ai Bordeaux. 

Henry VIII., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Attached. (See Nos. 153, 177, 254, 257, 280.) 

No. 176. 

This cunning cardinal, 

The articles o' the combination drew 

As himself pleased, and they were ratified. 

Henry VHL, Act 1, Scene 2. 

Articles. (See Nos. 165, 259, 261.) 
Ratified. (See No. 259.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 207 

No. 177. 

He is attached : 
Call him to present trial. 

Henry VIIL, Act 1, Scene 2. 

Attached. (See Nos. 153, 175, 254, 257, 280.) 
"To call" is a purely technical term, used to sig- 
nify the calling a defendant or plaintiff for pur- 
poses of trial. (See No. 56.) 

No. 178. 

First Gent. I'll tell you in a little. The great duke 
Came to the bar ; where, to his accusations, 
He pleaded still, not guilt}', and alleg'd 
Many sharp reasons to defeat the law. 
The king's attorney, on the contrary, 
Urg'd on the examinations, proofs, confessions 
Of divers witnesses ; which the duke desir'd 
To have brought, viva voce, to his face : 
At which appear'd against him, his surveyor ; 
Sir Gilbert Peck his chancellor, and John Carr, 
Confessor to him, with that devil-monk, 
Hopkins, that made this mischief. 

* * * ^ * * * 

Buck. The law I bear no malice for my death. 
It has done upon the premises but justice. 

Henry VHL, Act 2., Scene 1. 

Bar. (See No. 174.) 

After the plea of "not guilty," the king's attorney 
offered in evidence what were evidently the ex parte 
examinations and confessions of witnesses who had 
not been confronted with the accused. This was the 



208 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

practice of that age, and even of later times, and 
is the blot on the trial of Mary queen of Scots, who 
was convicted on such testimony as this, against her 
demand to be confronted with the witnesses. This 
demand made by the duke in the passage quoted 
was evidently sustained upon the axiomatic prin- 
ciple of legal evidence which requires the testimony 
of the witnesses against the defendant in a crim- 
inal prosecution to be delivered in his presence. 

Attorney. (See Nos. 127, 172, 287.) 

Bar. (See No. 174.) 

Premises. (See No. 1.) 

No. 179. 

Wol. Whilst our commission from Rome is read, 
Let silence be commanded. 

K. Hen. What's the need ? 

It hath already publicly been read, 
A^nd on all sides the authority allow'd : 
You may then spare that time. 

Henry VIII., Act 2, Scene 4. 

The installation of a judge into his office was al- 
ways by reading his commission at the opening of 
his court. The command of silence was part of 
the proclamation by which courts were opened. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 209 

No. 180. 

I do believe, 
Induc'd by potent circumstances, that 
You are mine enemy, and make m}^ challenge. 
You shall not be my judge : for it is you 
Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me, 
Which God's dew quench ! Therefore, I say again, 
1 utterly abhor, yea, from my soul. 
Refuse you for my judge, whom, yet once more, 
I hold my most malicious foe, and think not 

At all a friend to truth. 

Henry VIII., Ac: 2, Scene 4. 

No. 181. 

I do refuse you for my judge, and here 
Before you all appeal unto the pope. 
To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness, 
And to be judg'd by him. 

Henry VIII., Act 2, Scene 4. 

Challenge. An exception taken to the com- 
petency of a juror to try a particular case. One 
cause of challenge was always the bias or partial- 
ity of a juror against the party. 

In this particular case the queen was in error, for 
a judge shall not generally be excepted against or 
challenged, (i Imt, 294 \ 2 Inst. 422,) Indeed, 
she does not purpose to be tried in that court at 
all, but appeals unto the pope. This appeal, though 
illegal, was at that time a matter of disputed right, 
and had often been connived at. The contro- 
ls 



210 THK LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

versy was finally put to rest by the statutes of 24, 
25, Henry VIII., which made appellants liable to the 
pains of prcemun'ire. (4 BL, Comm. marg. p. 115.) 
The queen is thereupon called (see Nos. 56, 177) 
to come into court. So far there is a remarkable 
fidelity to the ceremonial forms of trial. Her 
answer to the procUmation requiring her to come 
into court, shows knowledge by Shakespeare of a 
somewhat recondite matter of legal practice and of 
its consequences. An appearance is the legal word 
for certain acts of a party, such as entering an ap- 
pearance or pleading, or making a motion for inci- 
dental action in the cause by the court. The effect 
of an appearance is to cure all defects in the pro- 
ceedings up to that time which are not jurisdic- 
tional. Katherine having protested against the 
competency of Wolsey to be her judge, and claim- 
ing that her appeal to the pope should operate to 
supersede the jurisdiction of the special court com- 
missioned to try the case of divorce, could not there- 
after appear in the case, for it would probably have 
been construed as a waiver of her objection to the 
cardinal and of her appeal to Rome. She accord- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 211 

ingly refused to make technical appearance and 
actually withdrew personally from the presence of 
court. 

Mary Stuart protested against being tried by the 
laws of England, and demanded trial by the civil 
law. She said to the commissioners: "Ye make 
laws at your pleasure, whereunto I have no rea- 
son to submit myself, considering that the English 
in times past refused to submit themselves to the 
law Salique of France." The Commissioners in- 
sisted that she ought to appear before them for the 
purpose of hearing, and that by both the civil and 
canon law she ought to make full appearance. 
She consented to appear, but, as she said, "by way 
of interlocution and not judicially." (i St. Tr. p, 
1171.) 

Appeal. (See No. 182.) 

No. 182. 

Crier. Kalherine, queen of England come into the court I 
******* 

Q. Kath. No, nor evermore 

Upon this business my appearance make 
In any of their courts. 

* * * * :)t. ^ Ht 

Cam. The queen being absent, 'tis a needful fitness 
That we adjourn this court till further day ; 



212 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAEE. 

Meanwhile must be an earnest motion 
Made to the queen to call back her appeal. 

Henry VIII., Act 2, Scene 4. 

The queen having absented herself from the court, 
being before it neither personally nor technically, it 
became necessary to adjourn the court until it could 
obtain jurisdiction over her person. Therefore, 
using the strictest legal expression for this act, the 
court is adjourned till further day. In the disputed 
state of the law as to appeals to Rome in such a 
canonical matter as a divorce suit then was, in- 
volving as it did not only the civil but the sacra- 
mental tie of marriage, the effect of her appeal was 
so doubtful that it was thought best to make a mo- 
tion to her to call it back, and thus reinstate beyond 
question the jurisdiction of the special court. 

Appearance. (See Nos. 79, 187, 298.) 

Appeal. (See No. 181.) 

No. 183. 

Cam. Put your main cause into the king's protection ; 
He's loving and most gracious ; 'twill be much 
Both for your honour better, and your cause ; 
For, if the trial of the law o'ertake ye, 
You'll part away disgrac'd. 

Wol. He tells you rightly. 

Q. Kath. Ye tell me what ye wish for both, m}^ ruin: 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 213 

Is this your Christian counsel ? out upon ye ! 
Heaven is above all yet ; there sits a Judge, 
That no king can corrupt. 

Henry VIII., Act 3, Scene 1. 

No. 184. 

Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me. 

Henry VIII., Act 3, Scene 1. 

Cause. (See Nos. 13, 60, 149, 200, 277a.) 

No. 185. 

Stay, 
Where's your commission, lords? words cannot carry 
Authority so weighty. 

***** * * 

That seal, 
You ask with such a violence, the king 
Mine, and your muster, with his own hand gave me : 
Bade me enjoy it, with the place and honours, 
During my life, and, to confirm his goodness. 
Tied it by letters-patents: now, who'll take it ? 

Henry VHI, Act 3, Scene 2. 

Wolsey demands the commission of his visitors. 
The great seal is not to be delivered up on a merely 
verbal message. He received it from the hand of 
the king, with words of bestowal for life. This life 
appointment had been confirmed by letters-patent. 
There is but one technical word capable of fully 
expressing the legal proposition of the cardinal, and 
that word is "confirmed." Had he used instead 
the word "granted," the force of the assertion that 



214 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

he had previously received the seal manually, with 
words of gift, would have been lost, for a grant 
takes effect only from its delivery. But a confirma- 
tion is a conveyance of an estate — "a right in esse/' 
— to another that hath possession thereof, or some 
estate therein, whereby a voidable estate is made 
sure and unavoidable, or a particular estate is in- 
creased or a possession made perfect. (1 Inst, 
295.) Wolsey puts his case strongly. He stands 
upon his possession under the gift by parol, con- 
firmed as it was by instruments which, in their ef- 
ficacy, relate back to the time when his possession 
under the gift began. 

It will be observed that Wolsey claims to be in- 
vested with the office of lord chancellor for life. 
This was an extraordinary tenure, for by the act of 
taking back the seal by the king the term of office 
has always been ended. The office is created by mere 
delivery of the seal into the custody of the person 
appointed, whereby he becomes, without writ or 
patent, the highest officer in the kingdom. So that 
Wolsey's assertion of his appointment by delivery 
of the seal was a sufficient legal statement of his 
right to the chancellorship. But the additional 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 215 

claim that he was chancellor for life needed some- 
thing more to make it valid, and he therefore in- 
sisted on the confirmation by letters-patent of his 
appointment for life. While it is laid down by 
Lord Coke [2 Inst. 87) that a chancellor may be 
made "at will by patent, but it is said not for life," 
the proposition was doubtful, as appears from the 
guarded language employed by Coke. The princi- 
ple was long a disputed one. Lord Clarendon had 
a patent to be lord chancellor for life, though he 
was afterwards dismissed from office and the pat- 
ent declared void, (i Sid. 338.) It is remarkable 
that Hume or Sharon Turner or Froude do not, 
in their accounts of the trial of the queen or the 
deposition of Wolsey, treat the legal features of 
these events with any particularity, nor put into 
the mouth of queen or cardinal the legal objections 
that each made to the proceedings against them. 
For these the reader must look to the dramatist 
who has given, with perfect juridical accuracy, an 
account of the operation of those legal formalities 
by which the queen suffered a separation worse 
than the "long divorce of steel" of her successor 
wives, and by which, in the language of Turner, 



216 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

"Wolsey fell like a loosened avalanche from its 
mountain summit of power and ambition, never to 
be replaced or dreaded any more." 

Commission. (See Nos. 1S6, 193.) 

The great seal. (See No. 186.) 

Letters-patent are writings of the king, sealed 
with the great seal of England, whereby a person 
is enabled to enjoy or do that which otherwise he 
could not; and so called because they are open, 
with the seal affixed, and ready to be shown for con- 
firmation of the authority there given. {Tomlin's 
Law Diet.) 

(See Nos. 124, 137.) 

No. 186. 

Sur. Have at you. 

First, that, without the king's assent, or knowledge, 
A^ou wrought to be a legale; by which power 
You maimed the jurisdiction of all bishops. 

Suff. Then that without the knowledge 
Either of king or council, when you went 
Ambassador to the emperor, you made bold 
To carry into Flanders the great seal. 

Sur. Item, you sent a large commission 
To Gregory de Cassado, to conclude, 
Without the king's will, or the state's allowance, 
A league between his highness and Ferrara. 

Suff. That, out of mere ambition, you have caus'd 
Your holy hat to be stamp'd on the king's coin. 

Suff\ Lord cardinal, the king's further pleasure is, 
Because all those things, you have done of late 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 217 

By your power legatine within tliis kingdom, 

Fall into the compass of a prceimuiire, 

Tliat therefore such a writ be sued against you ; 

To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements, 

Chattels, and whatsoever, and to be 

Out of the king's protection. 

Henry VIII., Ac: 3, Scene 2. 

The offense of prcemunire was one immediately 
affecting the king and his government, and was so 
called from the corrupt Latin of the writ preparatory 
to the prosecution thereof : "Praemunire facias A. B. 
Cause A. B. to be forewarned that he appear before 
us to answer the contempt wherewith he stands 
charged. " It had its origin in the exorbitant power 
claimed and exercised in England by the pope. 
Among these pretensions was that of the right to 
efifect an entire exemption of the clergy from any 
control by the civil magistrates ; the separation 
of the ecclesiastical courts from the temporal courts ; 
the appointment of the judges of the spiritual courts 
by merely spiritual authority, without any interpo- 
sition of the crown ; and the right of exclusive ju- 
risdiction over all ecclesiastical causes. The stat- 
ute of 16 Eichard XL, c. 5, provided that whoever 
procures at Kome or elsewhere any translations, 

processes, excommunications, bulls, instruments, or 
14a 



218 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

other things which touch the king, against him, his 
crown and realm, and all persons aiding and assist- 
ing therein, shall be put out of the king's protec- 
tion, their lands and goods shall be forfeited to the 
king's uses, and they shall be attached by their 
bodies to answer to the king and his council ; or i^vo- 
cess praemunire facias shall be made against them as 
in other cases of provisors. The original definition 
of the offense was the introduction of a foreign 
power into the kingdom, thus creating an *'imperium 
in imj)eriOf" by paying that obedience to papal pro- 
cess which constitutionally belonged to the king 
alone. There were several other statutes prior to 
Shakespeare's time creating and defining this of- 
fense. The punishment is stated by Sir Edward 
Coke to be, that from the conviction the defendants 
shall be out of the king's protection, and his lands, 
tenements, goods, and chattels be forfeited to the 
king, and that his body shall remain in prison at 
the king's pleasure. 

The march of Cardinal Wolsey towards power 
reached its last stage in his appointment by the 
pope as legate a latere to England. The effect of 
this ecclesiastical commission was to confer upon 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 219 

him the full power of the papacy within that realm. 
Holding this office and that of lord chancellor, as 
he did at the same time, his power, both spiritual 
and temporal, was undoubtedly greater than has 
ever been possessed by any English subject. 

The manner in which he used it, and the down- 
fall which resulted, is one of the most memorable 
lessons which history reads to ambition. Surrey 
and Suffolk, in summing up to the cardinal his 
offenses, do so with legal correctness of definition. 
When Wolsey, without the king's consent, wrought 
to be a legate and thereby to stand in the place of 
the pope in England, he manifestly maimed the ju- 
risdiction of the bishops, which, in that realm was 
always restricted by the civil policy of the kingdom, 
and was intimately connected with the exercise of 
the royal prerogative. Affixing the great seal to 
a blank commission to be filled with names of com- 
missioners out of the kingdom, authorizing them 
to treat with France, was considered such a high 
contempt of the power and authority of the crown 
that it was made an article of impeachment against 
Lord Somers during the reign of William III., 
although the act was done on the order of the 



220 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

king. So, also, to commission an ambassador with- 
out the king's will to conclude a league between 
him and a foreign state, was in derogation of 
one of the highest attributes of royal authority. 
The coining of money has in all civilized states 
been one of the most essential functions of sov- 
ereignty, and in England it was always part of 
the king's prerogative. Sir Matthew Hale observes 
(i Hist. P. C. 191) that the impression or stamping 
of coin is the unquestionable prerogative of the 
crown, and this was usually done by special grant 
from the king, or by prescription, which supposes 
one, and those who enjoyed this privilege by grant 
or prescription had not the authority of devising 
the impression, but had usually the stamp sent them 
from the exchequer. Hence, Shakespeare was cor- 
rect in making Suffolk say to the cardinal that be- 
cause of these things, done by his power legatine, 
he had fallen into the compass of a prcEinunire ; and 
it will be observed how accurate was Shakespeare's 
understanding, not only of its consequences, but of 
the legal formalities necessary to enforce them. 
The writ of prcemunire facias is to be sued against 
the cardinal, who is to forfeit all his lands, tene- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 221 

ments, and chattels, and be out of the king's pro- 
tection. 

Commission. (See Nos. 185, 193.) 

The great seal. (See No. 185.) 

No. 187. 

That I can tell you, too. The archbishop 
Of Canterbury, accompanied with other 
Learned and reverend fathers of his order, 
Held a late court at Dunstable, six miles off 
From Ampthill, where the princess lay; to which 
She oft was cited by them, but appear'd not. 
And, to be short, for not appearance, and 
The king's late scruple, by the main assent 
Of all these learned men she was divorc'd, 
And the late marriage made of none effect. 

Henry VIII., Act 4, Scene 1. 

"To cite" is to summon a person to appear be- 
fore a court, and it is the one exact word to be used 
respecting a spiritual or canonical court. Default 
was commonly taken for non-appearance in court at 
a day assigned. The ground upon which Henry 
based his right to a divorce from Queen Katherine 
was her previous marriage with his brother Arthur 
and its consummation. From his point of view 
this marriage was therefore void from the begin- 
ning; and it will be observed how accurately 
Shakespeare expresses this, by not only saying 



222 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

that she was divorced, but that the late marriage 
was made of none effect. And that such was the 
procedure appears from the reports of the trial, 
though some evidence was taken. The decree 
reads, "furthermore, the most illustrious and most 
powerful prince, King Henry VIII., in the fore- 
mentioned cause, by his proper proctor having ap- 
peared, but the said most serene lady Katherine, 
in contempt absenting herself, * * * (Jo pro- 
nounce sentence and declare for the nullity and in- 
validity of the said marriage, decreeing that the 
said pretended marriage always was and still is 
null and invalid; that it was contracted and con- 
summated contrary to the will and law of God; 
that it is of no force or obligation, but that it al- 
ways wanted and still wants the strength and sanc- 
tion of law." (i St, Tr. 259, 260.) 

Citation. A summons to appear, applied par- 
ticularly to process in the spiritual court. The 
ecclesiastical courts proceed according to the course 
of the civil and canon laws, — by citation, libel, etc. 
(Tomlins Law Diet.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 223 



No. 188. 

I do beseech 3^our lordships, 
That, in this case of justice, my accusers, 
Be what they will, may stand forth face to face, 
And freeh^ urge against me. 

T^ •J^ TV -IV ^ •JV 

Ah, my good lord of Winchester, I thank you, 
You are always my good friend ; if your will pass, 
I shall both find 3'our lordship judge and juror. 

Henry VIII., Act 5, Scene 3. 

No. 189. 

I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenor of the proclama- 
tion. 

Troilu3 and Cressida, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Tenor. An exact copy. (Bouv. Law Diet.) 

(See Nos. 37. 56, 223, 232.) 

No. 190. 

There is a law in each well-order d nation, 
To curb those raging appetites that are 
' Most disobedient and refractory. 

If Helen then be wife to Sparta's king, 
As it is known she is, these moral laws 
Of nature, and of nations, speak aloud 
To have her backreturn'd ; thus to persist 
In doing wrong, extenuates not wrong, 
But makes it much more heavy. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, Scene 2. 

No. 191, 

And, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act 2, Scene 3. 

No. 192. 

A kiss in fee-farm. 

* * * * * * * 
In 'witness whereof the parties interchangeabl}' — 

♦ * * * « * # 



224 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No perfection in reversion shall have a praise in present. 

****** * * 

Go to, a bargain made : seal it ; seal it ; 
I'll be witness. 

TroUus and Cressida, Act 3, Scene 2. 

Fee-farm. Is where the lord, upon the crea- 
tion of the tenancy, reserves to himself or his heirs 
either the rent for which it was before let to farm, 
or was reasonably worth, or at least a fourth part 
of the value, without homage, fealty, or other serv- 
ices beyond what are especially comprised in the 
feoffment. {2 Inst. 44.) 

Pandarus, dissatisfied with the lagging dalliance, 
evidently means that the kiss he has seen does not 
imply that either lover intends to render any other 
homage or service. He is throughout quite like 
an attorney in his remarks. He advises deeds in- 
stead of words, and this lets in the recital by him 
of what as to a deed is technically called the conclu- 
sion. When he thinks the lovers have concluded 
their agreement, he clamors to have it sealed, offer- 
ing to be the witness. So Troilus has in his mind 
the distinction between estates in reversion and 
those in presenti, when Cressida contrasts the 
vauntings of lovers with their future performances. 

Reversion. (See No. 122.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 225 

No. 193. 

Omission to do what is necessary, 

Seals a commission to a blank of danger. 

Troilua and Cressida, Act 3, Scene 3. 

Seal. (See Nos. 37, 52, 108, 126, 158, 204, 207, 
256, 274, 288.) 

Coramission. (See Nos. 185, 186.) 

Blank. (See No. 124.) 

No. 194. 

On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st oyez. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act 4, Scene 5. 

Oyez. (See No. 7.) 

No. 195. 

Performance is a kind of will and testament which argues 
a great sickness in his judgment that makes it. 

Timon of Athens, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Will. (See Nos. 128, 207, 208, 293.) 
Testament. (See Nos. 128, 150, 207, 293.) 

No. 196. 

All have not offended ; 
For those that were, it is not square, to take, 
On those that are, revenges : crimes, like lands. 
Are not inherited. 

Timon of Athens, Act 5, Scene 4. 

15 



226 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 197. 

Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't 
a verdict ? 

Cor inl anus. Act 1, Scene. 1. 

Verdict. (See Nos. 121, 298.) 

No. 198. 

— make edicts for usury, to support usurers : repeal daily 
any wholesome act established against the rich, and pro- 
vide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain 
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will, and there's 
all the love they benr us. 

Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene 1 . 

Statutes. (See No. 42.) 
Act. (See Nos. 56, 162.) 
Repeal. (See No. 162.) 

No. 199. 

You, Titus Lartuis, 
Must to Corioli hack : send us to Rome 
The best, with whom we may articulate, 
For their own good, and ours. 

Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene 9. 

Articulate. To specify in articles. (Wor- 
cester.) 

No. 200. 

Men. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. 
You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs ; you wear 
out a good wholesome forenoon, in hearing a cause betw^een 
an orange-wife and a fosset-seller ; and then rejourn the con- 
troversy of three-pence to a second day of audience. When 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 227 



you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you 
chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces iike 
mummers ; set up the bloody flag against all patience : and, in 
roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding, 
the more entangled by your hearing ; all the peace you make 
in their cause, is calling both the parties knaves : you are a 
pair of strange ones. 

Co) iolaauSi Act 2, Scena 1 • 

Rejourn. To adjourn. (Worcester.) 
Cause. (See Nos. 13, 60, 149, 184, 277a.) 

No. 201. 

When he had no power, 
But was a petty servant to the state, 
He was your enem}- ; ever spake against 
Your liberties, and the charters that \'ou bear 
1' the body of the weal . 

Coriolanus, Act -', tScene^. 

Charters. Charters of the king are those 
whereby the king passeth any grant to any person 
or body politic, such as charters of exemption or 
privilege. 

The word is here used in the legal sense which 
it possessed at that time, and it peculiarly meant 
those instruments executed by a sovereign to the 
people or their representatives by which their lib- 
erties were confirmed and guaranteed, as by the 
great charter of liberties granted in the ninth 
year of King Henry III,, and also by Magna 



228 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Charta granted by King John. It was in this form, 
also, that political powers and personal rights were 
granted and guaranteed by the English sovereigns 
for the establishment of colonies in America. 

No. 202. 

Let them assemble ; 

And, on a safer judgment, all revoke 
Your ignorant election. 

Coriolanus, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Revoke. The calling back of a thing granted, 
or a destroying or making void of some deed that 
had existence until the act of revocation made it 
Yoid ; and where any deed or thing is revoked it is 
as if it had never been. (5 Rep. 90.) 

No. 203. 

Proceed by process. 
Lest parties, as he is belov'd, break out, 
And sack great Rome with Romans. 

****** 

Give me leave, 

I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him 

Where he sliall answer, by a lawful form, 

In peace to his utmost peril. 

Coriolanus, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Process. Is so called because it proceeds or 
goes out upon former matter, either original or ju- 
dicial, and hath two significations : First, it is 
largely taken for all the proceedings in any action 
or prosecution, real or j)ersonal, civil or criminal, 
from the beginning to the end. Second, that is 
termed the process by which a man is called into 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 229 

any temporal court because it is the beginning or 
principal part thereof, by which the rest is directed ; 
or, taken strictly, it is the original part of the pro- 
ceeding. (8 Rep. 157.) 
(See Nos. 211, 273.) 

No. 204. 

Then shame to the Romans : and we here deliver, 
Subscrib'd by the consuls and patricians, 
Together with the seal o' the senate, what 
We have compounded on. 

Coriolanus, Act 5, Scene 6. 

Seal. (See Nos. 37, 52, 108, 126, 158, 207, 
256, 274, 288.) 

Compounded. (See Nos. 64, 67.) 

No. 205. 

Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, 
To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear, 
For the repealing of my banish'd brother ? 

Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar; 
Desiring thee, that Publius Cimber may 
Have an immediate freedom of repeal. 

Cces. What, Brutus ! 

Cas. Pardon, Cgesar; Caesar, pardon : 

As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall. 
To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber. 

Julius CcBsar, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Repeal. (See Nos. 3, 130.) 

Enfranchisement. Is when a person is in- 
corporated into any society or body politic, and it 
signifies the act of incorporating. 



230 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



Publius Cimber, having been banished and cut 
off from his connection of citizenship with the body 
corporate of Rome, became, in the language of 
the civil law, capite minutus. Brutus and Cassius, 
in petitioning Ctesar for his repeal and enfranchise- 
ment, ask not merely that he be set at liberty, but 
that he may be restored to Roman citizenship. 

No. 206. 

The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol: his 
glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy : nor his offenses 
enforced, for which he suffered death. 

Julius Co&nar, Act 3, Scene 2. 

Enrolled. (See No. 43.) 

No. 207. 

But here's a parchment, Avitli the seal of Caesar; 

I found it in his closet ; 'tis his will : 

Let but the commons hear this testament, 

Which, pardon me, 1 do not mean to read. 

And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, 

And dip their napkins in his sacred blood ; 

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, 

And, djang, mention it within their wills, 

Bequeathing it, as a rich legacy, 

Unto their issue. 

Julius Cossar, Act 3, Scene 2. 

Seal. (See Nos. 37, 52, 108, 126, 158, 204, 
256, 274, 288.) 

Will. (See Nos. 128, 195, 208, 293.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 231 

Testament. (See Nos. 129, 150, 195, 293.) 

Bequeath. (See Nos. 57, 293.) 

Legacy. A bequest or gift of goods and chat- 
tels by will or testament. 

(See No. 293.) 

Issue. (See Nos. 74, 97, 99, 100, 102, 237.) 
It is to be remarked that Antony, in speaking of 
the real estate left by Caesar to the Roman peo- 
ple, does not use the appropriate word "devise." 
Shakespeare nowhere uses the word in connection 
with a will. It was also unnecessary for Caesar's 
will to have contained the expression "to your heirs 
forever," in order to give the people a perpetual es- 
tate in the realty devised. 

No. 208. 

Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal. 

To every Roman citizen he gives, 

To every several man, seventj'-five drachmas. 

***** 
Moreover, he hath left you all his walks, 
His private arbours, and new- planted orchards, 
On this side Tyber ; he hath left them you, 
And to your heirs forever ; common pleasures, 
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves. 

Julius Cceaar, ^cr 3, Sc»ne2. 

Will. (See Nos. 128, 195, 207, 293.) 
Heirs forever. (See No. 161.) 



232 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 209. 

That by proscription, and bills of outlawry, 
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, 
Have put to death a hundred senators. 

Julius CcRsar, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Proscription. Outlawry. {Worcester,) 
It was a term of the civil law, and its exercise 
was one of the severest inflictions of political power 
in Rome. It was nearly equivalent to the outlawry 
of the English law, which doubtless was derived 
from it as both in policy and methods of execution. 

Outlawry. To be put out of the protection of 
the law. 

An outlawry in treason or felony amounted to a 

conviction and attainder of the offense charged in 

the indictment, as much as if the offender had been 

found guilty by a verdict. Anciently, an outlawed 

felon was said to have caput lupinum, and might be 

knocked on the head like a wolf by any one who 

should meet him. (Co, Litt. 128h,) 

No. 210. 

I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved. 

Ant. and die.. Act 1, Scene 1. 

Bourn. A boundary; a limit. 

(See No. 271a.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 233 

No. 211. 

Cleo. If the scarce- bearded Caesar have not sent 
His powerful mandate to you, " Do this, or this; 
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that ; 
Perform't, or else we damn thee." 

Ant. How, my love ! 

Cleo. Perchance, — nay, and most like, 
You must not stay here longer, your dismission 
Is come from Caesar; therefore, hear it, Antony. — 
Where's Fulvia's process? Caesar's, I would say? 

Ant. and C/e., Act 1, Scene 1. 

Process. (See Nos. 203, 273.) 

No. 212. 

A lily-livered action-taking knave. 

King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2. 

No. 213. 

His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven. 
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary, 
Rather than purchased. 

Ant. and'Cle., Act 1, Scene 4. 

The words "hereditary" and "purchased" are used 
here in no other than a legal sense. Title to real 
property could be acquired by descent or by pur- 
chase. In law language, by "purchase" is always 
intended title by some kind of conveyance, either 
for money or some other consideration or gift, for 
that is also in law a purchase; but a descent, be- 
cause it cometh merely by act of law, is not said 

to be a purchase, and accordingly the makers of 
15a 



234 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

the act of parliament {1, Hen. V. c. 5) speak of 
them that have lands or tenements by purchase 
or descent of inheritance. {Co. Litt. sees. 12^ 18b.) 
And the meaning here is that the faults have been 
cast upon the person by descent, and have not 
been otherwise acquired by him. 
(See No. 43a.) 

No. 214. 

That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour, 

Even till a Lethe'd dulness. 

Ant. and Cle., Act 2, Scene 1. 

Prorogue. To prolong or put off to another 
day. [Tomlins Law Diet.) 

There is a distinction between the meaning of 
prorogation and adjournment, as applied to parlia- 
ment. The former is the continuance of parliament 
from one session to the next; the latter is a con- 
tinuation of that session from day to day. 

(See Nos. 246, 252.) 

No. 215. 

You have broken 
The article of your oath, which you shall never 
Have tongue to charge me with. 

Ant. and CU., Act 2, Scent 2. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 235 



No. 216. 

1 crave, our composition may be written, 
And seal'd between us. 

Ant. and Cle,, Act 2, Scene 6. 

Sealed. (See Nos. 150, 259, 262.) 

No. 217. 

Post. Will you ? 1 shall but lend my diamond till your re- 
turn. Let there be covenants drawn between us: my mis- 
tress exceeds in goodness the hugeness of your unworthy 
thinking : I dare you to this match : here's my ring. 

Phi. 1 will have it no lay. 

Jac?L By the gods it is one : If 1 bring you no sufficient 
testimony that I have enjoyed the dearest bodily part of your 
mistress, my ten thouand ducats are yours ; so is your dia- 
mond too. If 1 come off, and leave her in such honour as 
you have trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and my 
gold are yours : provided, I have your commendation, for 
my more free entertainment. 

Post. I embrace these conditions ; let us have articles be- 
twixt us : only, thus far 3'ou shall answer. If you make 
your voyage upon her, and give me directly to understand 
you have prevailed, 1 am no further 3'our enemy, she is not 
worth our debate : if she remain unseduced (you not making 
it appear otherwise,) for your ill opinion, and the assault you 
have made to her chastit}-, you shall answer me with your 
sword . 

lack. Your hand ; a covenant : we will have these things 
set down by lawful counsel, and straight away for Britain ; 
lest the bargain should catch cold, and starve : 1 will fetch 
my gold, and have our two wagers recorded. 

Cynibeline, Act I, Sane 5. 

Covenant. The agreement or consent of two 
or more by writing, sealed and delivered, whereby 



236 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

either or one of the parties doth promise to the 
other that something is done already or shall be 
done afterwards. (ISIiep. Touchst. 160.) 
(See Nos. %&, 126.) 

No. 218. 

Ay ; I said so, sir. 
If you will make't an action, call witness to't. 

Cymbeline, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Action. Is the form of a suit given by law for 
recovery of that which is one's due ; for it is a le- 
gal demand for a man's right. {Co. Litt. 285.) 

(iSee Nos. 139, 289, 299.) 

No. 219. 

Granted Rome a tribute. 
Yearly three thousand pounds, which by thee lately 
Is left untender'd. 

Cymbeline^ Act 3, Scene 1 . 

Tender. The offering of money or of any other 
thing in satisfaction. 

(See Nos. 2, 56, 289.) 

No. 220. 

We do say then to Caesar, 
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which 
Ordain'd our laws ; whose use the sword of Caesar: 
Hath too much mangled ; whose repair, and franchise, 
Shall by the power we hold, be our good deed. 

Cymbeline, Act 3, Scene 1. 

No. 221. 

Black as the ink that's on thee! senseless bauble, 

Art thou a feodary for this act. 

Cymbeline, Act 3, Scene 5. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 237 

Feodary. A tenant who holds his land by 
feudal service. The word also signifies an officer 
of the court of wards. 

No. 222. 

A prison for debtor that not dares 
To stride a limit. 

Cymbeline, Act 3, Scene 3, 

Limit. As to prisoners for debt, certain boun- 
daries were designated as prison limits. If the 
debtor went beyond these, either of his own will or 
by the permission or negligence of the officer, it 
constituted an escape. 

As to the liability for escape, see No. 89. 

No. 223. 

Tills is tlie tenor of tJie emperor's writ. 

Cymbeline, Act 3, Scene 7. 

Tenor. (See Nos. 37, 56, 189, 232.) 
Writ. (See No. 242.) 

No. 224. 

Tlie law 
Protects not us ; then wh\' should we be tender, 
To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us ; 
Play judge, and executioner, all himself; 
For we do fear the law. 

Cymbeline, Act 4, Scene 2 . 

No. 225. 

He by the senate is accited home. 

Titus Andronicut, Act 1, Scene \. 



238 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 226. 

Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy 
In thy uprightness and integrity. 

Titus Andronicus, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Affy. To put confidence in. (Johnson.) 

(See No. 69.) 

No. 227. 

Titus, I am incorporate in Rome, 
A Roman now adopted liappily. 

Titus Andronicus, Act 1, Scene 2. 

The queen of the Goths asserts here her status as 
a Roman, upon reasons of the civil law, by the use 
of the words "adopted" and "incorporate." 

In no other civilized community has the power of 
the husband and father over the family, and its ab- 
solute identification with him, been so complete as 
in Rome. His status was at once political or so- 
cial, and religious. He was the high priest of his 
family. His own ancestors were the objects of the 
domestic worship ; for them the sacred hearth-fire 
was kept burning, and when the family became ex- 
tinct by the failure of male issue not only did the 
family cease to be, but the sacred fire of a religion 
was forever extinguished upon the hearth, which 
was also an altar. This was dreaded as a religious 
catastrophe. Accordingly, the father who was hope- 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 239 

less of male issue was permitted to adopt a son, 
who, in the line of descent, became in time the fa- 
ther of that family and the domestic priest. To 
adopt, it was necessary to secure, by apt forms, the 
emancipation of the son from his father. When 
all this was done the adopted son lost all legal re- 
lations to his real kin — he became incorporate into 
a new family, {in sacra transiit,) renouncing his old 
worship. The same consequences of total change 
of legal relationship followed a woman upon her 
marriage. She left her kin; she was a lawful apos- 
tate from their domestic worship. In the contem- 
plation of the law her husband became her father. 
"Marriage becomes for her a second birth; she is 
henceforth the daughter of her husband; Jilics locOf 
say the jurists. His ancestors have become her 
ancestors. She ceased to worship her progenitors 
and worshiped his." (De Coulange, The Ancient 
City, pp. 69, 68; Maine, Ancient Laiv,p. 143.) This 
religious and civic incorporation followed when the 
emperor married Tamora. From that instant and 
by that act the captive empress of the Goths 
became as completely a Eoman matron as was the 
mother of the Gracchi herself. 



240 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 228. 

Why, how now, lords ! 
So near the emperor's palace dare you draw, 
And maintain such a quarrel openly? 

Titus Andronicus, Act 2, Scene 3. 

By the ancient law and before the conquest, 
fighting in the king's palace, or before the king's 
judges, was punished with death. By the statute 
of 33 Henry VIII., c. 12, malicious striking in the 
king's palace, wherein his royal person resided, 
whereby blood was drawn, was punishable by per- 
petual imprisonment and fine at the king's pleasure, 
and also with loss of the offender's right hand. {4 
Bl, Comm. marg. p, 124,) 

No. 229. 

Tit. I did, my lord : yet let me be their bail : 
For by my father's reverend tomb, 1 vow, 
They shall be ready at your highness' will, 
To answer their suspicion with their lives. 

Sat. Thou shall not bail them. 

Titus Andronicus, Act 2, Scene 4. 

Bail. A delivery of bailment of a person to his 
sureties upon their giving (together with himself) 
sufficient surety for his appearance, he being sup- 
posed to be in their friendly custody instead of go- 
ing to gaol. {4 BL Comm. marg. p. 297.) 

(See Nos. 35,300.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. ' 241 

No. 230. 

Yet, for 1 know thou art religious, 

And liast a thing within thee, called conscience, 

With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies, 

Which I have seen thee careful to observe, 

Therefore 1 urge rny oath ; for that, I know. 

An idiot holds his bauble for a god, 

And keeps the oath, which by that god he swears ; 

To that I'll urge him : therefore, thou shalt vow 

By that same god, what god soe'er it be. 

That thou ador'st and hast in reverence. 

To save my bo}', to nourish, and bring him up, 

Or else I will discover nought to thee. 

Titus Andronicus, Act 5, Scene 1. 

All persons, of whatever religion or country, were 
competent witnesses at common law. The test was 
whether he believed in a God, in the obligation of 
an oath, and in a future state of rewards and pun- 
ishments. 

A Mahometan was sworn on the Koran ; a Parsee, 
according to the custom of India. {Leach, Cas. p, 
52; 1 Atk. pp. 19,21.) The cases in Atkyns were 
decided by Lord Hardwicke, "the most consummate 
judge who ever sat in the court of chancery;" and 
he states that Coke alone, of all the authorities, 
"has taken upon himself to insert the word * Chris- 
tian,' and he alone has grafted this word into an 
oath." 

16 



242 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 231. 

Like a forlorn and desperate cast-away, 
Do shameful execution on herself. 

Titus Andronicua, Act 5, Scent 8. 

Do execution. (See Nos. 22, 91.) 

No. 232. 

But I will gloze with him. Young prince of Tyre, 

Though by the tenor of our strict edict, 

Your exposition misinterpreting, 

We might proceed to cancel of your days, 

Yet hope, succeeding from so fair a tree 

As your fair self, doth tune us otherwise : 

Forty days longer we do respite you. 

Pcriclet, Actl, Scene 1. 

Tenor. (See Nos. 37, 56, 189, 223.) 
Exposition. (See No. 56.) 
Respite. (See No. 28.) 
Edict. (See Nos. 25, 135, 170.) 

No. 233. 

For if a king bid a man be a villain, he is bound by the 

indenture of his oath to be one. 

Pericle; Act 1, Scent 3. 

Indenture. (See Nos. 108, 132, 236, 276.) 

No. 234. 

One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir, 
That may succeed as his inheritor. 

Ptriclet, Act 1, Scene 4. 



THE XAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 243 

Inheritor. (See Nos. 276, 308.) 
Heir. (See No. 244.) 

No. 235. 

Help, master, help ; here's a fish hangs in the net, like % 
poor man's right in the law, 'twill hardly come out. 

Periclet, Act 2, Se«n» 1. 

No. 236. 

Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty 
Old receptacles, common sewers, of filth ; 
Serve by indenture to the common hangman; 
Any of these ways are better 3^et than this. 

PericU$, Act 4, Srgns «. 

Indenture. (See Nos. 132, 233, 276.) 

No. 237. 

Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, 
With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd 
With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, 
We make thee lady : to thine and Albany's issue 
Be this perpetual. 

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. 

By the use of the word "issue" Lear entailed 
this grant by apt words, while Henry VI., though 
he used the word "entail," (see No. 161,) failed 
to create an estate tail by using only the words 
"and to thine heirs, forever." 

Issue. (See Nos. 74, 97, 99, 100, 102, 207.) 



244 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 238. 

I do invest you jointly with my power, 
Pre-eminence, and all the large effects 
That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course, 
With reservation of a hundred knights, 
. By you to be sustain 'd, shall our abode 
Make with you b}^ due turns. Only we still retain 
The name, and all the additions to a king ; 
The sway, revenue, execution of the rest, 
Beloved sons, be yours : which to confirm, 
This coronet part between you. 

King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Invest. (See No. 96.) 

Addition. (See No. 90.) 

Confirm. (See No. 185.) 

Lear perfects this grant and investiture by deliv- 
ering his coronet to Albany and Cornwall, and di- 
recting them to part it between them. A livery in 
deed is when the feoffor takes the ring of the door 
or a turf or twig on the land and delivers the same 
on the land in the name of seizin of the land. (Co, 
Lift, sees. 48a, 59.) 

Seizin is a technical term to denote the comple- 
tion of that investiture by which the tenant was ad- 
mitted into the tenure, and without which no free- 
hold could be constituted or pass. [Per Lord Mans- 
field, 1 Burr. 107.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 245 

No. 239. 

Lear. It shall be done, I will arraign them straight : 
Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer; [To Edgar. 

Thou, sapient sir, sit here. [ To the Fool.] Now, 
you she foxes ! 
Edg. Look, where he stands and glares ! 
Wantest ihou eyes at trial, madam ? 

Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me ; 
Fool. Uer boat hath a leak, 

And she must not speak 
Why she dares not come over to thee. 
Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a 
nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly, for two white 
herrings. Croak not, black angel ; I have no food for thee. 

Kent. How do you, sir ? Stand you not so amaz'd : 
Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions ? 

Lear. I'll see their trial first : bring in the evidence. 
Thou robed man of justice, take thy place ; [ To Edgar. 

And thou his 3'oke- fellow of equity, [ To the Fool. 

Bench by his side : you are of the commission, 
Sit you too. [ To Kent. 

Edg. Let us deal justly. 

Steepest, or icakest thou, jolly sJiepherd ? 

Thy sheep be in the corn; 
And for one blast of thy minikin mouth, 
Thy sheep shall take no harm. 
Pur I the cat is gre}'. 

Ijear. Arraign her first ; 'tis Goneril. I here take my oath 
before this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor king her 
father. 

Fool. Come hither, mistress ; is your name Goneril ? 
Lear- She cannot deny it. 

Fool. Cry you mercy, 1 took you for a joint-stool. 
Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim 
What store her heart is made of— Stop her there ! 



246 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

Arms, arms, sword, fire ! Corruption in the place ! 
False justicer, why has thou let her 'scape. 

King Lear, Act 3, Scene. 6, 

Arraign. (See Nos. 27, 78.) 

Justicer. A judge, justice, or, as he was some- 
times termed, justiciary. 

Cushion. A reference to the woolsack. 

This is the seat of the lord chancellor in the 
House of Lords, and was a large cushion stuffed with 
wool. It is said to have had its origin from the 
fact that wool formerly was regarded as a chief 
source of the wealth of England, and the woolsack, 
covered with red cloth, was first put into use for 
the above purpose to commemorate an act passed 
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth forbidding the ex- 
portation of wool. Lear's conception, in his in- 
sane caprice, is that the Fool is a justice of a 
court of common law, and that Edgar is the chan- 
cellor, and he invites Kent to sit with them, as one 
of the commission. 
(See No. 91.) 

Bench. Banke is a Saxon word and signifieth 
a bench or high seat, or a tribunal, and is properly 
applied to the justices of the court of common pleas, 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 247 

because the justices of that court sit there as in a 
certain place. {Co. Lift. 96, 71b.) 

(SeeNos. 9, 141.) 

Commission. The warrant of letters-patent, 
which all persons exercising jurisdiction, ordinary 
or extraordinary, have to authorize them to hear 
or determine any cause or action; as the commis- 
sion of the judges. {Tomlin's Law Diet.) 

Equity. (See No. 156.) 

No. 240. 

Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us. 
Though well we may not pass upon his life 
Without the form of justice, yet our power 
Shall do a courtesy to our wrath. 

King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7. 

Pass upon. This is the law phrase which sig- 
nifies the power and act of judicial decision on any 
question. (See No. 17.) 

No. 241. 

Lea?'. See how yon' justice rails upon yon' simple thief. 
Hark, in thine ear : change places ; and, handy dandy, which 
is the justice, which is the thief ? thou hast seen a farmer's 
dog bark at a beggar ? 

Glo. Ay, sir. 

Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou 
might'st behold the great image of authority : a dog's obeyed 
in office. 

Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand : 
Why dost thou lash that whore ? Strip thine own back ; 
Thou holly lust'st to use her in that kind 
For which thou whipp'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. 

Kinf Lear, Act 4, Seen* 6. 



248 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 242. 

Quickly send, — 
Be brief in it, — to the castle ; for my writ 
Is on the life of Lear, and on Cordelia : 
Nay, send in time. 

Alb. Run, run, O, run — 

Edg. To who, my Lord ? who has the office ? send 
Thy token of reprieve. 

Edm. Well thought on ; take my sword. 

King Lear, Act 5, Scent 3. 

Writ. In general, the king's precept in writing 
under seal, issuing out of some court to the sheriff 
or other person and commanding something to be 
done touching a suit or action, (i Inst. 73.) 

(See No. 223.) 

Writ of execution. Is a judicial writ 
grounded on the judgment of the court from whence 
it issues. The execution of criminals was formerly 
by a precept under the hand and seal of the judge. 
(2 Hale, C. P. c. 31.) Afterwards it became the 
usage for the recorder of London to report the result 
of the trial to the king in person, and who, having re- 
ceived the royal pleasure that the law take its 
course, issued his warrants to the sheriff. (4 St. 
Tr. 432.) 

Reprieve. (See Nos. 30, 32.) 

No. 243. 

Sam. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin. 

Ore. I will frown, as I pass by; and let them take it as 
they list. 

Sam. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, 
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 249 

Abr. Do 3'ou bite 3our thumb at us, sir ? 

Sam. I do bite my thumb, sir. 

Ab)\ Do you bite your thumb at us, sir ? 

Sam. Is the law on our side, if 1 say— ay ? 

Gre. No. 

Sam. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite 
ra3'^ thumb, sir. 

Gi'e. Do you quarrel, sir ? . 

Abr. Quarrel, sir? no, sir. 

Sam. If you do, sir, 1 am for you ; I serve as good a man 
as you. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1. 

This is an amusing application of the law of 
assault and battery. Sampson and Gregory wish 
to affront Abraham by physical action which will 
fall short of assault ; probably intending, however, 
to lay the ground- work for a plea of molliter manus 
imposiiit, in case Abraham, in his rage, attacks 
them. 

Self-defense. (See No. 275.) 

No. 244. 

Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie, 
And young affection gapes to be his heir. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scent 5. 

Heir. (See No. 234.) 



No. 245. 



And the demesnes that there adjacent lie. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 5. 

ICa 



250 THE LAW m SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 246. 

My life were better ended by their hate, 
Than death prorogued, wanting of tli}- love. 

Rojneo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2. 

Prorogue. (See Nos. 214, 252.) 

No. 247. 

Ben, An 1 were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man 
should buy the fee-simple of m}^ life for an hour and a quarter. 
Mer. The fee-simple ? O simple ! 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Benvolio, in offering to sell the fee-simple of his 
life for an hour and a quarter, falls into contradic- 
tion in terms, and therefore Mercutio, ridiculing his 
ignorance, exclaims, " The fee-simple 7 simple ! " 

Fee-simple. (See Nos. 6, 63, 159, 312.) 

No. 248. 

But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine, 
That you shall all repent the loss of mine. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Amerce. Signifies the pecuniary punishment 
of the offender against the king or other lord in his 
court that he is found to have offended, and to stand 
at the mercy of the king or lord. The difference 
between an amercement and a fine is this : Fines 
are said to be punishments certain, and grow ex- 
pressly from some statute, but amercements are 
such as are arbitrarily imposed. (Tomlin's Law 
Diet,) 



Fine. (See Nos. 23, 56.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 251 

No. 249. 

Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, 
Displant a town, reverse a priuce's doom, 
It helps not, it prevails not. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scam 3. 

Reverse. Is the majiing void of an erroneous 
judgment for error. (Tomlins Laio Diet,) 
(See No 2.) 

Doom. (See Nos. 2, 22.) 

No. 250. 

How now, wife ; 
Have you delivered to her our decree ? 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene. 5. 

No. 251. 

That is no slander, sir, which is a truth ; 
And what 1 spake, I spake it to my face. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1. 

In a suit for slander, if the defendant proves the 
words true, no action will lie. {4 Rep, IS.) Ju- 
liet's defense to the charge of slander is perfect. She 
avers that the words are true, and that the alleged 
slander was committed merely by speaking them to 
the face. It was never slander to say to a man's face 
any evil concerning him, unless it was done in the 
presence and hearing of one or more third persons. 
To charge the most flagrant crimes to another's 
face privately, though very annoying, and possibly 
injurious in its effect upon his mind, is no slander. 



252 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



because there is no publication. His reputation is 
not assailed before others, and he cannot presum- 
ably be injured when the false charge is made only 
to himself. It is no slander if the party thus falsely 
accused repeats it to others by way of complaint 
or otherwise, because the publication is not made 
by the defamer, who, it is true, uttered the charge, 
but has not published it. {Cooleu, Torts, 193.) 

No. 252. 

I hear thou must, and nothing must proro<;ue it, 
On Thursday next be married to this county. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act^, Scene 1. 

Prorogue. (See Nos. 214, 246.) 

No. 253. 

Such mortal drugs 1 have, but Mantua's law 
Is death, to any he that utters them. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Utter. To deliver for an unlawful purpose any 
unlawful article or thing. The more restricted 
meaning of this word is the disposal or negotiation, 
with a fraudulent intent, of a forged instrument or 
a false coin, knowing it to be forged or false. 

No. 254. 

I do defy thy conjurations, 
And do attach thee as a felon here. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene \. 

Attach. (See Nos. 86, 257, 280.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 253 

No. 255. 

Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee: 
Obe}^ and go with me ; for thou must die. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. 

No. 256. 

seal with a righteous kiss 
A dateless bargain to engrossing death ! 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. 

Engrossing. Is the getting in one's possession, 
or buying up large quantities of corn or other dead 
victuals with intent to sell them again. The offense 
of engrossing is said to extend only to the neces- 
saries of life. (7 Moore, P. C. 239, 262.) 

The word as here used signifies that death is the 
great engrosser of all mortal beings. 

Seal. (See Nos. 37, 52, 108, 126, 158, 204, 207, 
274, 288.) 

Bargain. (See No. 288.) 

No. 257. 

The ground is bloody ; search about the church-yard : 
Go, some of j^ou, whoe'er you find, attach. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. 

Attach. (See Nos. 86, 153, 177, 254, 280.) 

No. 258. 

Before my God, I might not this believe, 
AVithout the sensible and true avouch 
Of mine own eyes. 

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Avouch. (See Nos. 40, 106.) 



25i THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 259. 

Did slay this Fortinbras, who, by a seal'd compact, 

Well ratified by law and heraldry, 

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands 

Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror : 

Against the which, a moiety competent 

Was gaged by our king, which had return'd 

To the inheritance of Fortinbras, 

Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same co-mart, 

And carriage of the article design'd. 

His fell to Hamlet. 

[lamiet, Act 1, Scene 1. 

This technical statement of the agreement is 
almost pedantic in its legal phraseology. In every 
line a legal expression is used. Terms of art are 
packed into this passage so closely as to form the 
greater part of its composition. 

Article. (See Nos. 165, 176, 261.) 

Forfeit. (See Nos. 17, 25, 52, 56, 306.) 

Moiety. (See Nos. 56, 132, 298.) 

Ratified. (See No. 176.) 

Sealed. (See Nos. 150, 216, 262.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 255 

No. 260. 

Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, 
The imperial jointress of this warlike state. 

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. 

Jointress. She who had an estate settled on 
her by the husband, to hold during her life if she 
survived. (1 Inst. 46.) 

Jointure. (See No. 165.) 

No 261. 

and we here despatch 
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, 
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway, 
Giving to you no further personal power 
To business with the king, more than the scope 
Of these dilated articles allow. 

Hamlet, Act 1, Sceru 2. . 

Articles. (See Nos. 165, 176, 259.) 

No. 262. 

Upon his will I sealed my hard consent. 

Hamlet, Act 1, Scent 2. 

Sealed. (See Nos. 150, 216, 259.) 

No. 263. 

Or, that the Everlasting had not fixed 
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! 

Hamlit, Act 1, Scene 2. 

Canon. (See No. 111.) 



256 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 264. 

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders 
Of his affection to me. 

Pol. Aifection ! pooh ! you speak like a green girl, 
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. 
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them ? 

Oph. 1 do not know, my lord, what I should think. 

Pol, Marry, I'll teach you : think yourself a baby, 
That you have ta'en these tenders for true paj'-, 
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, 
Or, not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, 
Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool. 

HamUty Act 1, Sctne 3. 

Tender. (See Nos. 2, 56, 289.) 

No. 265. 

Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers. 

Not of that die which their investments show, 

But mere implorators of unholy suits. 

Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, 

The better to beguile. 

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. 

Brokers. Those who contrive, make, and con- 
clude bargains and contracts between merchants 
and tradesmen in matters of money and merchan- 
dize for which they have a fee or reward. 

The distinction between a broker and a factor 
(see Nos. 84, 171) is that the factor is entrusted 
with possession, management, control, and disposal 
of the goods, while a broker, on the contrary, usually 
has no such possession. It will be observed that 



1 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. ^57 

in each case where Shakespeare speaks of a broker 
or factor, he uses the words with this distinction. 

No. 266. 

So the whole ear of Denmark, 

Is, by a forged process of my death, 

Kankly abus'd. • 

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5. 

Process. The word "process" generally means 
the writ of the court, yet it has also the special 
meaning of an official statement designed to memo- 
rialize and authenticate an event, as the loroces- 
verbal of the French law. 

No. 267. 

Propose the oath, my lord. 

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5. 

Oath. (See No. 169.) 

No. 268. 

Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes. 
The youth you breathe of, guilty, be assured. 

HamUt, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Prenominate. Is the synonym of * aforesaid.' 

No. 269. 

I did repel his letters and denied 
His access to me. 

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1. 

No. 270. 

sends out arrests 

On Fortinbras, which he, in brief, obeys; 

****** 
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee. 

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. 

17 



258 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 271. 

May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence ? 
In the corrupted currents of this world. 
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, 
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself 
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above : 
There is no shuffling; there the action lies 
In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd, 
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults. 
To give in evidence. 

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3. 

Here, as in many passages, Shakespeare attests 
his reverence for justice as judicially administered, 
and his abhorrence of judicial corruption. The 
phrase "the action lies" is a legal formula to ex- 
press that a suit can be maintained in a court. It 
lies in its true nature. In the court above there is 
none of that shuffling which quashes the declaration 
because it does not conform to the writ, or which 
quashes the writ itself because its framer has 
adopted a wrong form and has brought an action of 
the wrong nature; perhaps having sued in trover 
when his action lay only in trespass or case, or mis- 
apprehended the distinction between the action of 
covenant and that of debt. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 259 



No. 271a. 

The undiscovered country from whose bourn 
Xo traveller returns. 

Hamlet. Act 3, Scene. I. 

Bourn. (See No. 210.) 

No. 272. 

Besides, to be demanded of a sponge I What replication 
should be made by the son of a king ? 

Hamlet, Act 4, Scene. 2. 

Replication. An exception or answer made 
by the plaintiff to the defendant's plea. 
(See No. 311.) 

No. 273. 

thou may'st not coldly set 
Our sovereign process, which imports at full, 
By letters conjuring to that effect. 
The present death of Hamlet. 

Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Process. (See Nos. 203, 211.) 
Homage. (See Nos. 1, 124.) 

No. 274. 

Kinfj. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, 
* * # * m * * 

Laer. It well appears : but tell me. 

Why you proceeded not against these feats. 
So crimeful and so capital in nature. 

Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 7. 

Acquittance. (See Nos. 4, 45.) 

Seal. (See Nos. 37, 52, 56, 108 , 126, 158, 204, 
207, 256, 288.) 



260 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 275. 

1 Glo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial, that wilfully 
seeks her own salvation ? 

2 Clo. I tell thee, she is ; therefore make her grave straight : 
the crowner hath set on her, and finds it Christian burial. 

1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her 
own defense ? 

2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so. 

1 Clo. It must be se offendendo ; it cannot be else. For here 
lies the point : If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act : 
and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to 
perform : Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 

2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 

\Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here 
stands the man ; good : if the man go to this water, and 
drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes ; mark you that : 
but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not 
himself : Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, 
shortens not his own life. 

2 Clo. But is this law ? 

\Clo. Ay marry is't; crowner's-quest law. 

2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't ? If this had not been a 
gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian 
burial. 

Hamlet., Act 5, Scene 1. 

In the argument between the clowns Shakes- 
peare ridicules the proceedings in a case reported 
by Plowden. (5 Eliz.) The question arose in the 
case of Hales v. Petit, upon a demurrer in an ac- 
tion of trespass brought by Lady Margaret Hales, 
widow of Sir James Hales, against Cyriaek Petit. 
It appeared that it was claimed that Sir James 



I 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 261 

Hales had feloniously and voluntarily drowned him- 
self, and that fact had been found by an inquisition 
before the coroner. It was maintained that by 
reason of the felony of suicide and this inquisition, 
Sir James had forfeited his interest and that of 
his wife in certain property. A commission had 
been issued out of the court of exchequer directing 
commissioners to inquire what kinds of goods and 
chattels, real and personal, were possessed by Sir 
James at the time of his death, to take the same 
into their hands for the king and queen, and the 
commission found among such property a leasehold 
interest in the premises in question, to Sir James 
and Margaret his wife. The defendant Skinner 
claimed that under these circumstances the interest 
in the term which James and Margaret possessed 
jointly had been totally forfeited to the king and 
queen; that the interest of Margaret was ended 
and extinct ; and he pleaded a grant from the king 
and queen of the same premises to himself. It 
was to this plea that Lady Margaret demurred. 

Sergeants Southcote and Puttrell argued that the 
plea in bar was not good, and did not disclose suf- 
ficient matter to divest the term out of the plaintiff 



262 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

and put it in the king and queen ; that the felony 
of her husband did not take away her title as sur- 
vivor. They said : "Now, in this matter of felony, 
two things are to be considered, — firsts the cause 
of the death ; secondly, the death ensuing the cause ; 
and these two make the felony, and without both 
of them first done the felony is not consummate. 
And the cause of the death is the act done in the 
party's life-time which makes the death to follow. 
And the act which brought on the death here was 
the throwing himself voluntarily into the water, for 
this was the cause of his death. And if a man 
kills himself by wound, if he kills himself with a 
knife or if he hangs himself, as the wound or hang- 
ing, which is the act done in the party's life-time, 
is the cause of his death, so is the throwing him- 
self into the water here. And this act done, which 
he has done to himself, is to be considered in the 
same light as if he had done it to another; and if 
he had given another mortal wound whereof he aft- 
erwards died, there, although the wound was the 
cause of the death, yet it should not have relation 
as to the forfeiture of his goods to the time of the 
wound given. So, here, the death has not relation 



I 



I 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 263 

to the cause of it, but for the forfeiture; it has rela- 
tion to the death itself, and when so caused he 
shall be adjudged a felon. And forasmuch as he 
cannot be attainted of his own death because he is 
dead before there is any time to attaint him, the 
finding of his body by the coroner or other person 
authorized is, by necessity of law, equivalent to an 
attainder in fact, coming after his death, as to his 
goods." 

It was argued on the other side by Walsh, Chol- 
mey, Bendlow, and Carus, sergeants, that the for- 
feiture of the goods and chattels, real and personal, 
shall have relation to the act done in the party's 
life-time, which was the cause of his death, and 
upon this the parts of the act are to be considered, 
and Walsh said that "the act consists of three parts. 
First, is the imagination, which is a reflection or 
meditation of the mind whether or no it is con- 
venient for him to destroy himself, and what way 
it can be done. The second is a resolution, which is 
a determination of the mind to destroy himself, and 
to do it in this or that particular way. The third 
is the perfection, which is the perfection of what 
the mind has resolved to do, and this perfection 



264 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

consists of two parts, viz., the beginning and the 
end. The beginning is the doing of the act which 
causes the death, and the end is the death, which 
is only a sequel to the act, and of all the parts the 
doing of the act is the greatest in the judgment of 
law, and it is in effect the whole, or the only part 
that the law looks upon to be material, for the im- 
agination of the mind to do wrong without an act 
done is not punishable in our law; neither is the 
resolution to do that wrong which he does not, pun- 
ishable, for the doing of the act is the only point 
which the law regards. And here the act done by 
Sir James Hales, which is evil, and the cause of his 
death, is the throwing himself into the water, and 
the death is but a sequel thereof, and this either act 
ought some way to be punished." Justice Brown, 
in delivering his opinion, said: "Sir James Hales 
was dead, and how came he to his death ? It may 
be answered, by drowning. And who drowned him ? 
Sir James Hales. And when did he drown him ? 
In his life-time. So that Sir James Hales, being 
alive, caused Sir James Hales to die. The act of 
the living man was the death of the dead man." It 
was adjudged that the plea in bar was sufiQcient to 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEAKE. 265 

preclude Margaret from having her action, and it 
was considered that she take nothing by her writ, 
bat be in mercy for her false claim. (1 Ploivcleny 
258.) 

Sir James Hales was a justice of the common 
pleas during the reign of Edward VI. When that 
king insisted that the judges should sign the deed 
of settlement by which he attempted to settle the 
crown upon Lady Jane Grey, Hales was the only 
judge who refused. He could not, though a Prot- 
estant, be induced to do any act against the right 
of the Princess Mary, whom he considered the heir 
apparent. After her accession he acted as a mag- 
istrate in the county of his residence presiding at 
the quarter sessions, and charged the grand jury that 
the acts of the former reigns respecting religious 
worship were still in force. Under this charge an 
indictment was found for unlawfully celebrating 
mass, and the defendant, having been convicted, 
was sentenced by Hales according to law. For this 
he was not allowed to take the oath of office before 
the chancellor under Mary, and was committed to 
the Fleet. While there he was so terrified by stories 

told him by the keeper of the torments in store for 
17a 



266 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



him, that he attempted to stab himself, and did, 
after his release, drown himself, and then the re- 
lentless and unfeminine zealot, -whose rights he had 
so stoutly stood for, followed him with a rancor 
which the grave could not abate, and insisted on the 
forfeiture of his wife's claim as joint tenant of his 
leasehold estate. 

Self-defense. (See No. 243.) 

Guilty. (See Nos. 149, 174, 291.) 

No. 276. 

Ham. There's another: Wh}' may not that be the skull of 
a lawyer ? Where be his qiiiddits now, his quillets, his cases, 
his tenures, and his tricks ? wh}^ does he suffer this rude 
knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, 
and will not tell him of his action of battery? Humph! This 
fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his stat- 
utes, his recognizances, his tines, his double vouchers, his re- 
coveries : is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his 
recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his 
vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double 
ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? 
The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box ; 
and must the inheritor himself have no more ? ha ? 

H</r. ISot a jot more, my lord. 

Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? 

Hm\ Ay, my lord, and of calves-skins too. 

Ham. They are sheep, and calves, which seek out assur- 
ance in that. 

Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1. 



THE LAW I^^ SHAKESPEARE. 267 

Here the lawyer descants upon mortality in the 
abstrasest language of his science. With the skull 
in his hand, Hamlet does not here speculate on the 
base uses to which the dust of Alexander or the 
imperial clay of Caesar may have returned. Nor 
does he indulge in any of those stately and dirge- 
like meditations in which the literature of Shakes- 
peare's time was so abounding, and in which 
Shakespeare himself could teach the nothingness of 
all human things so feelingly as to persuade us all, 
— a time when a chief justice in a peerage case 
could pause to moralize on the extinction of great 
families, — saying, "and yet Time hath his revolu- 
tions ; there must be a period and an end to all 
temporal things— ^/inis reriun — an end of names and 
dignities and whatever is terrene, — and why not of 
De Yere ? for where is Bohun ? where is Mowbray ? 
where is Mortimer? nay, which is more and most 
of all, where is Plantagenet ? They are entombed 
in the urns and sepulchres of mortality.'* 

Action of battery. (See Nos. 12, 20.) 

Statutes. Statutes-staple and statutes-mer- 
chant were securities for money, — the one entered 



268 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

into before the chief magistrate of some trading 
town, pursuant to 13 Edw. I. St. 3, cle mercatori- 
buSy and therefore called a statute-merchant; the 
other pursuant to 27 Edw. III. St. 2, c. 9, before the 
mayor of the staple, which was the grand mart for 
the principal commodities and manufactures of the 
kingdom, formerly held, under act of parliament, 
in certain trading towns, from which this security 
was called a statute-staple. Under them not only 
could the debtor be imprisoned and bis goods 
seized to satisfy the debt, but also his lands could 
be delivered to the creditor, to be held by him un- 
til he should satisfy the debt out of the rents and 
profits. By these statutes, and by that of Acton 
Burnel, {11 Edw. I.,) the creditor was empowered to 
cause the debtor to appear before the mayor and 
acknowledge the debt by recognizance, which was 
enrolled. These securities, therefore, became the 
sources of title to lands, and estates by statute- 
merchant and statute-staple were classed as estates 
defeasible on condition subsequent. 

Pine and recovery. (See Nos. 6, 85.) 
Assurance. (See Nos. 69, 99.) 
Cases. (See No. 92.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 269 

Double-voucher. This was an incident of 
alienation of lands by a common recovery. A. de- 
sired to suffer a common recovery so as to bar en- 
tails, remainders, and reversions, and thereby to 
convey the land in fee-simple to B. To effect this 
B. brought a suit against A. for the lands, alleging 
that A. had no legal title, but that he came into 
possession after one C. (a fictitious person) had 
turned the plaintiff out. Whereupon A., the de- 
fendant, appeared, and called on D., (who was usu- 
ally the crier of the court, who was used for that 
purpose.) who, by fiction, was supposed to have 
warranted the title to A. when the latter bought, to 
come in and vouch and defend the title which he had 
so warranted. D. thereupon pleaded, defending the 
title. B. then requested leave of the court to imparl 
or confer with the voucher D. in private, which was 
done. B. returned into court, but D. absented him- 
self and made default. Whereupon judgment was 
given that B. recover the lands of A., and A. had 
judgment to recover lands of equal value of D., the 
man of straw. This recovery was with a single 
voucher. But D. being a mere man of straw, it 
was manifest that A. had only a nominal recom- 



270 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

pense for the lands. It was customary to have a 
recovery, with double voucher, by first conveying 
an estate of freehold to any indifferent person 
against whom the suit was brought, who vouched 
the tenant in tail who wished to carry through the 
recovery, who in turn vouched the man of straw 
again. The reason of this double voucher was 
that if a recovery was had immediately against the 
tenant in tail, (A.,) it barred only such estate in 
the lands of which he was then actually seized, but 
if the recovery was had against another person, 
and A., the tenant in tail, was vouched, it bound 
every latent or contingent right which he might 
have in the premises recovered. Death is there- 
fore the tine and common recovery of all things and 
the man himself, and his vouchers, single or double, 
vouch him nothing then. 

Indenture. (See Nos. 108, 132, 233, 236.) 

Inheritor. (See Nos. 234, 308.) 

Parchment. (See No. 158.) 

No. 277. 

Hor. flow was this seal'd? 

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. 
I had m.y father's signet in my purse, 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE^ 27l 

Which was the model of that Danish seal : 
Folded the writ up in form of the other, 
Subscrib'd it,gave't the impression, plac'd it safely, 
The changeling never known. 

Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2. 

No. 277a. 

Had 1 but time as this fell sergeant, death, 
Is strict in his arrest, O, I could tell you, — 
But let it be : Horatio, I am dead ; 
Thou liv'st ; report me and my cause aright 
To the unsatisfied. 

Hamlet. Act 5, Scene 2. 

Sergeant. Sergeants-at-arms were officers 
whose duty it was to attend the king and to arrest 
persons of condition offending. The office survives 
in our time, in legislatures. There were also ser- 
geants of an inferior dignity, as sergeants of the 
mace, who attended the mayor or other head offi- 
cers of cities for purposes of justice. Formerly all 
justices in eyre had certain officers attending them 
who were called sergeants, who were in the nature 
of tip-staves. [Stat, Westm. 1, 3 Ediv. I. c. 30.) 
There was also a sergeant of the hundred, who was 
no more than the bailiff of the hundred. {Bract, 
lib, 5, c. 4.) 

Arrests. (See Nos. 11, 17, 86, 87, 137, 138, 
295, 300.) 

Hamlet desires that his cause may be reported 
aright. He has failed, and is held in the strict 
arrest of death. The merits of his controversy 
have never been tried. His own procrastination 



272 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

has postponed the arbitrament, and he asks Hora- 
tio to make a legal memorial which will show its 
justice. 

Cause. (See Nos. 13, 60, 149, 184, 200.) 

No. 278. 

And, in conclusion, nonsuits 

My mediators. 

Othello. Act 1, Scene 1. 

Nonsuits. When the plaintiff failed to make 
out his case by adducing insufficient evidence to 
support it, he was called, and failing to answer 
was nonsuited or adjudged not to have followed his 
remedy. 

No. 279. 

It seems not meet, nor wholesome to m}-- place, 

To be produc'd (as, if I stay, 1 shall,) 

Against the Moor : for, 1 do know, the state. 

However this may gall him with some check. 

Cannot with safety cast him. 

Othello, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Produced. An accuser or adverse witness is 
said in law to be produced against the accused. 

(See No. 53.) 

Cast. Is to be defeated in a lawsuit; often ex- 
pressed by the common phrase "cast in costs;" 
probably derived from the words of judgment 
against a plaintiff, ''cassetur breve." 

(See No. 282.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 273 



No. 280. 

Bra. I therefore apprehend and do attach thee, 
For an abuser of the world, a practiser 
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant — 
Lay hold upon him ; if he do resist, 
Subdue him at his peril. 

0th. Hold your hands, 

Both you of my inclining, and the rest : 
Were it my cue to light, I should have known it 
Without a prompter. Where will you that I go 
To answer this your charge ? 

Bra. To prison, till fit time 

Of law, and course of direct session, 
Call thee to answer. 

Othello, Act 1, Scent 2. 

Attach. (See Nos. 86, 153, 177, 257,) 

If the felon in any case resists or flies, whether 
after arrest or before, the officer may kill him, and 
such killing is justifiable. (2 Hale, P. C. 90, 95, 
120.) 

Session. A sitting of justices in court upon 
their commission. [Tomlins Law Diet,) 

(See Nos. 78, 79, 283, 296a.) 

No. 280a. 

Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding 
Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself, 
And you of her, the bloody book of law 
You shall yourself read in the bitter letter, 
After your own sense, yea, though our proper son 
Stood in your action. 

Othello, Act 1, Scene 3. 

Action. (See Nos. 139, 218, 289, 299.) 
18 



74 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 281. 

lira. I therefore vouch again, 

That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood, 
Or with some dram conjur'd to this effect, 
He wrought upon her, 

J)uke. To vouch this, is no proof ; 

Without more certain and more overt test, 
Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods 
Of modern seeming, do prefer against him. 

Othello, Act 1, Scene 2. 

No. 282. 

What, man ! there are waj^s to recover the general again : 
You are but now cast in his mood; a punishment more in 
policy than in malice : even so as one would beat his offence 
less dog, to affright an imperious lion ; sue to him ngain, and 
he's yours. 

Othello, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Recover. The obtaining anything by judg- 
ment or trial of law. {Tomlins Laiv Diet.) 

Cast. (See No. 279.) 

No. 283. 

who has a breast so pure, 

But some uncleanly apprehensions 

Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit 

With meditations lawful ? 

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3. 

Leets. A court-leet is a court of record having 
the same jurisdiction within some particular pre- 
cinct which the sheriff's tourn hath in the county. 
(4 Bl. Comm.p. 273.) It is also a word used for a 
law-day in several ancient statutes. {Dyer, 30b.) 
It is the most ancient court for criminal matters. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 275 

Law-day. Called also court-leet. It was any 
day of open court and commonly used for courts of 
a county or hundred. 

Session. (See Nos. 78, 79, 280, 296a.) 

No. 284. 

Yet, 'tis t)ie plague of great ones ; 
Prerogativ'd are they Jess tliau the base. 

Othello. Act 3, Scene 3. 

No. 285. 

Yilhiin, be sure thou prove my love a whore ; 
Be sure of it ; give me the ocular proof. 

Othello, Acto, Scenes. 

Evidence. (See Nos. 157, 170.) 

No. 286. 

1 Avas (uuhaudsome warrior as 1 am) 
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul ; 
But now I find, I had suborned the witness, 
And he's indited falsely. 

Othtllo, Act 3, Scene 4. 

Arraign. (See Nos. 27, 78, 239.) 

Suborned. (See Nos. 88, 95, 304.) 

Indicted. A bill of indictment is a written 
accusation of one or more persons of a crime or a 
misdemeanor preferred to and presented on oath by 
a grand jury. (4 Bl. Comm.j^.oO^.) 



276 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 



No. 287. 

But when the heart's attornej'' once is mute, 
The client breaks, as desperate in his suit. 

Venus and Adonis. 

Attorney. (See Nos. 127, 172, 178.) 
Client. (See No. 172.) 

No. 288. 

Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted, 

What bargains may I make, still to be sealing? 
To sell myself I can be well contented, 

So thou wilt buy, and pay, and use good dealing, 
Which purchase if thou make, for fear of slips, 
Set thy seal-manual on my wax-red lips. 

Venus and Adonis. 

Bargain. (See No. 256.) 

Seal. (See Nos. 37, 52, 56, 108, 126, 158, 204, 
207, 256, 274.) 

No. 289. 

Now let me say good night, and so say you ; 

If you will say so, you shall have a kiss. 
Good night, quoth she ; and ere he says adiev. 

The honey fee of parting tendered is. 

Venus and Adonis. 

Fee. (See No. 111.) 

Tendered. (See Nos. 2, 56, 264.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 277 

No. 290. 

Guilty thou art of murder and of theft ; 

Guilty of perjury and subornation ; 
Guilty of treason, forgery, and shift; 

Guilty of incest, that abomination ; 

An accessory by thine inclination 
To all sins past, and all that are to come, 
From the creation to the general doom. 

The Rape of Lucrece. 

Guilty. (See Nos. 149, 174, 275.) 
Accessory. (See Nos. 165, 297.) 
Guilty of a felonious offense, not principally, 

but by participation, — as by command, device, or 

concealment. 

Subornation. (See No. 156.) The connec- 
tion of this word with perjury is most accurate. 

No. 291. 

No man inveigh against the wither'd flower, 
But chide rough winter that the flower hath kill'd: 
Not that devour'd, but that which doth devour. 
Is worth}' blame. O, let it not be hild 
Poor women's faults, that they are so fulfill'd 
With men's abuses: those proud lords, to blame, 
Make weak-made women tenants to their shame. 

The Rape of Lucrece. 



278 THE LAM' IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 292. 

And with my trespass never will dispense, 
Till life to death acquit my forced offense. 

The Rape of Lucrece. 

Acquit. (See No. 148.) 

No. 293. 

My stained blood to Tarquin I'll bequeath, 
Which by him tainted, shall for him be spent, 
And as his due, writ in my testament. 
My honor I'll bequeath unto the knife 

That wounds my body so dishonoured, 

ij^ * '* ^ ■* ^ 

Dear lord of that dear jewel 1 have lost, 

What legacy shall I bequeath to thee ? 

This brief abridgment of my will I make : 
My soul and body to the skies and ground. 

The Rape of Lucrece. 

Bequeath. (See No. 57.) 

Legacy. (See No. 207.) 

Testament. (See Nos. 129, 150, 195, 207.) 

Will. (See Nos. 128, 195, 207, 208.) 

No. 294. 

Mine enemy was strong, my poor self weak. 
And far the weaker with so strong a fear: 

My bloody judge forbade my tongue to speak ; 
No rightful plea might plead for justice there : 
His scarlet lust came evidence to swear. 

That my poor beauty had purloin'd his eyes, 

And when the judge is robb'd, the prisoner dies. 

The Rape of Lucrece. 

Plea. (See Nos. 54, 297.) 



THE LAW IX SHAKESPEARE. 279 

No. 295. 

The deep vexation of his inward soul 

Hath served a dumb arrest upon his tongue ; 

The Rape of Lucrece. 

Served. The execution of process. 

(See Xo. 140.1 

Arrest. (See Nos. 11, 17, 86, 87, 137, 138, 
277a, 300.) 

No. 296. 

Rough winds do shake the darling huds of May, 
x\nd summer's lease hath all too short a date ; 

XVIII. Sonnet. 

Lease. The conveyance of land for a certain 
time or at will. (See Nos. 100, 303, 308.) 

No. 296a. 

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought 
I summon up remembrance of things past. 

XXX. Sonnet. 

Sessions. (See Nos. 78, 79, 280, 283.) 

No. 297. 

Thy adverse party is thy advocate, 
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence ; 

Such civil war is in my love and hate, 
That 1 an accessar}' needs must be 
To that sweet thief, which sourly robs from me. 

XXXV. Sonnet. 

Accessary. (See Nos. 165, 291.) 

Plea. That which either party alleges in a suit. 
(See No. 54, 294, 298.) 



280 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 298. 

My heart doth plead, that thou in him dost lie, 

A closet never pierced with crystal eyes. 
But the defendant doth that plea deny. 

And says in him thy fair appearance lies. 
To 'cide this title is empanelled 

A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart. 
And b}^ their verdict is determined 

The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part. 

XL VI. Sonnet. 

Plea. (See Nos. 54, 294, 297.) 

Appearance. (See Nos. T9, 182, 187.) 

Verdict. (See Nos. 121, 197.) 

Erapanelled. The writing and entering into 
a parchment schedule by the sheriff the names of 
the jury. 

Quest. Inquest. Inquisition or inquiry upon 
the oaths of an empanelled jury. 

Moiety. (See Nos. 56, 132, 259.) 

No. 299. 

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, 
But sad mortality o'er- sways their power, 

How with his rage shall beauty hold a plea, 
Whose action is no stronger than a flower ? 

LXV. Sonnet. 

Hold a plea. An ancient phrase for holding 
a court. "Pleas before the honorable," etc. 

Action. (See Nos. 139, 218, 280a, 289.) 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 281 



No. 300. 

But be contented : when that fell arrest 
Without all bail shall carry me away, 

My life hath in this line some interest, 
Which for memorial still with thee shall stay. 

LXXIV. Sonnet. 

Arrest. (See Nos. 11, 17, 86, 87, 137, 138, 

277a, 295.) 

Bail. (See Nos. 35, 229.) 

No. 301. 

But do thy worst to steal thyself away, 
For term of life thou art assured mine. 

XCII. Sonnet. 

Term. The limitation of time or estate; as a 
lease for term of life, or years. (Tomlin's Law 
Diet.) 

Assured. (See No. 51.) 

No. 302. 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds 

Admit impediments. 

ex VI. Sonnet. 

Irapediments. And (because in the times of 
popery a great variety of degrees of kindred were 
made impediments to marriage, which impedi- 
ments might, however, be bought off for money) it 
is declared by the statute 32 Henry VIII., c. 38, 
that nothing, God's law except, shall impeach any 
marriage but within the Levitical degrees, the 
18a 



282 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

furthest of which is that between uncle and niece. 
{Gilb. Rep. 158.) 

No. 303. 

It fears not policy, that heretic, 
Which works on leases of short-number'd hours. 

CXXIV. Sonnet. 

Lease. (See Nos. 100, .296, 308.) 

"No. 304. 

Hence, thou suborn'd informer ! a true soul, 
When most impeach'd, stands least in thy control. 

CXXV. Sonnet. 

Suborned. (See Nos. 88, 95, 286.) 

Informer. The person who informs against 
or prosecutes in any of the king's courts those who 
offend against any law or penal statute. 

Impeach. To accuse and prosecute for felony 
or treason. 

No. 305. 

Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be, 

And her quietus is to render thee. 

CXXVI. Sonnet. 

Quietus. A word made use of in the ex- 
chequer in the discharge given to accountants. It 
also signifies the discharge of an administrator. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 283 

No. 306. 

So now 1 have coiifessd that lie is thine, 

And I myself am mortgaged to thy will ; 
M^'self I'll forfeit, so that other mine 

Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still; 
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free, 

For thou art covetous, and he is kind ; 
He learned but, surety-like, to write for me, 

Under that bond that him as fast doth bind. 
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take, 

Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use, 
And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake ; 

So him I lose through my unkind abuse. 
Him have I lost ; thou hast both him and me ; 

He pays the whole, and yet 1 am not free. 

C XXXIV. Sonnet- 

Mortgage. A conveyance of property as se- 
curity. The iproperty at common law became ab- 
solutely forfeited to the mortgagee upon default in 
the performance of the condition. 

Forfeit. (See Nos. IT, 25, 52, 66, 259.) 

Bond. (See Nos. 40, 51, 52, 56, 98, 99, 131.) 

Statute. (See No. 276.) 

Surety. (See No. 50.) 

No. 307. 

Why should my heart think that a several plot, 
Which my heart knows the wide world's common place ? 

CXXXVII. Sonnet. 

Common. (See Nos. 47, 208.) 



284 THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 

No. 308. 

Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth, 

Fool'd b}' those rebel powers that thee array, 
Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth, 

Painting thy outward walls so costly gay ? 
Why so large cost, having so short a lease. 

Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ? 
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, 

Eat up thy charge ? Is this thy body's end ? 
Then, soul, live thou upon th}^ servant's loss, 

And let that pine to aggravate thy store; 
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross ; 

AVithin be fed, without be rich no more : 
So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men, 
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then. 

CXLVI. Sonnet. 

Lease. (See Nos. 100, 296, 303.) 
Term. (See No. 301.) 
Inheritor. (See Nos. 234, 276.) 

No. 309. 

Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill. 

That in the very refuse of thy deeds 
There is such strength and warranties of skill. 

CL. Sonnet. 

Deeds. (See Nos. 56, 67.) 

Warranties. A promise or covenant by deed 
by the bargainor, for himself and his heirs, to war- 
rant or secure the bargainee and his heirs against 
all men in the enjoyment of the thing granted. 



THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. 285 



No. 310. 

Think women still to strive with men, 

To sin, and never for to saint : 
There is no heaven, by holy then, 

When time with age shall them attaint. 

Passionate Pilgrim., XVII. 

Attaint. (See Nos. 44, 130, 153.) 

No. 311. 

So on the tip of his subduing tongue 
All kinds of arguments and question deep, 

All replication prompt, and reason strong, 
For his advantage still did wake and sleep. 

Lover^s Complaint. 

Replication. (See No. 272.) 

No. 312. 

My woeful self, that did in freedom stand, 
And was my own fee-simple, (not in part.) 

Lover^s Complaint. 

Fee-Simple. (See Nos. 6, 63, 159, 247.) 



INDEX. 



(ITie Figures refer to the Xumbers.) 

Abjuhe, 40, 103. 

Access, 269. 

Accessory, 168, 291, 297. 

Accited, 225. 

According to the tenor, 56. 

Acquit, 148, 292. 

Acquittance, 4, 45, 274. 

Act, (Statute,) 56, 162, 198. 

Action, 139, 218, 280a, 289, 299. 

Action of battery, 12, 20, 276. 

Action, bring my, 68. 

Action entered, an, 137. 

Action lies, 271. 

Action on the case, 87. 

Action of slander, 20. 

Accused and accuser face to face, 115. 

Addition, (title of honor,) 90, 23S. 

Adjourn court, 182. 

Administer oath, 169. 

.Adoption, citizenship by, in Roman law, 227. 

Advised by counsel, 136. 

Advocate, an, 297. 

Adverse party, 297. 

Affeered, 101. 

Affied, 69. 

Affy, 226. 

All his right, 40. 

Alleged, 178. 

Alleges, in Latin, 64. 

Allegiance, 93. 

Ambassador, 186. 

Amerced with a fine, 248. 

(287) 



288 INDEX. 



And whereas, 158. 
Annual fee in tribute, 270. 
Answer, 56. 

Answer, to a charge, 158. 
Answer to, by lawful form, 203. 
Anything to say before judgment, 56. 
Appeal, 181, 182. 
Appeal, to accuse, 116. 
Appeal, to make good an, 115. 
Appearance, 79, 182, 187, 298. 
Appeared against, 178. 
Appeared in court, 187. 

Appearance, personal, distinguished from that by attor- 
ney, 127. 
Appellant, 116, 120, 130. 
Appertinents, 147. 
Apprehend, (to arrest,) 255. 
Arraign, 27, 78, 79, 239, 286. 
Arraign and try, 27. 
Arraigning, 286. 
Arbitrate, 119. 
A vY) 1 1 vo m put" 1 4Q 

Arrest, 11, 17, 86, 87, 187, 138, 277a, 295, 300. 
Arrest, at suit of, 11. 
Arrest, mode of, 148. 

Arrested on tlie case, (form of action,) 87. 
Arrest, resistance to, 280. 
Arrest, to answer, 148. 
Arrests, warrant of, 270. 
Armigero, 4. 

Articles, 165, 176, 259, 261. 
Article of an oath, 215. 
Articles contracted, 155. 
Articulate, (treaty,) 199. 
As aforesaid, 191. 
Assign a day of trial, 130. 
Assurance, 69, 99, 276. 
Assure, to, 66, 67. 
Assured, 51, 301. 



INDEX. 289 



At the suit of, 11. 

Atone, 119. 

Attach, 153, 175, 177, 257, 280. 

Attach by officer, 86. 

Attached goods, 175. 

Attainder, 44, 130. 

Attainder, law of, 153. 

Attaint, 310. 

Attainted, 153. 

Attested, 14. 

Attorney, die by, 60. 

Attorneys, 127, 172, 178, 287. 

Attorneys general, 124. 

Audit, 305. 

Avouch, 40, 106, 258. 

Award judgment to, 56. 

Bail, 35, 229, 300. 
Banishment, law of, 127. 
Bankrupt, 56. 
Bar, 114, 143, 144. 
Bar, (in a court,) 174, 178. 
Bar from succession, 83. 
Bargain, 256, 288. 
Bargain sealed, 192. 
Battery, 276. 
Beadle, 241. 

Before-breach of laws, 149. 
Bench, 9, 141, 239. 
Benefit of clergy, 158. 
Benevolences, 124. 
Bequeathed, 87, 293. 
Bequeathed legacy, 293. 
Bequeathing a legacy, 207. 
Bill, (bond,) 4. 

Bill, (parliamentary law,) 5, 142. 
Bills of outlawry, 209. 
Blanks, 124, 186. 

Bond, 40, 51, 52, 56, 98. 99, 131, 306. 
19 



290 INDEX. 



Bond, condition of, 52. 

Bond, single, 52. 

Bottom, 49, 109. 

Bound to, 131. 

Bourn, (a boundary,) 210, 271a. 

Broken seal, 149. 

Brokers, 265. 

Burglary, 38. 

By these "presence," 158. 

Call, (to trial,) 177. 

Call into court, 56. 

Call to answer, 280. 

Cancel a bond, 98. 

Canon, 111, 263. 

Capital, (crime,) 274. 

Capitulate, 134. 

Case, (form of action,) 87. 

Cases, 92, 276. 

Case of justice, 188. 

Cast, to defeat in a suit, 279, 282. 

Cause, 13, 60, 149, 184, 200, 277a. 

Cause, hearing of, 21. 

Cause in controversy, 56. 

Challenge, to a judge, 181. 

Challenge law, (to demand a trial,) 127. 

Charity fulfils the law, 48. 

Charge, 34. 

Charters, 201. 

Chattels and goods, 68. 

Cite to, 5o. 

Cited to court, 187. 

Client, 172, 287. 

Come into court, 182. 

Cominission, 185, 186, 193. 

Commission, those in, 91, 239. 

Commission to oflice, reading of, 179. 

Committed, (to prison,) 77, 136, 141, 146, 166. 

Common estate in, distinguished from severalty, 158, 807. 



INDEX. 291 



Common of pasture, 158. 

Common, right of, 208. 

Common, tenancy in, 47, 158, 207. 

Compact sealed, 259. 

Composition, an agreement, 216. 

Compound to, 64, 67. 

Compounded, (agreed to,) 204. 

Conclude to a league, 186. 

Concluded articles, 155. 

Conditions, 217. 

Condition of bond, 52. 

Conditionally, 161. 

Confess a bond to, 56. 

Confessions, 178. 

Confirm, 185, 238. 

Confirm to, (by letters patent,) 185. 

Confirm to, (as evidence,) 105. 

Confirmed, 14. 

Conspired, 148. 

Contempt of court, law of, 141. 

Contracted, 155. 

Contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, 158. 

Conveyances, 275. 

Convict, 170. 

Coram, 4. 

Coroner, 8, 275. 

Corrupted, (in blood by attainder,) 153. 

Counsel, 217. 

Counsel, advised by, 136. 

Countermand, a, 31. 

Course of hnv, 170. 

Court-hand, 1-58. 

Covenants kept, 6Q. 

Covenant, 126, 217. 

Covenants, Qio, 126, 217. 

Crowner's-quest, 275. 

Cushion, (judge's seat, a) 239. 

Cust-alorum, 4. 

Cut the eutail, 63. 



292 INDEX. 



Debtors, prison limits, 222. 

Deed, 67. 

Deed of gifts, 56. 

Deeds, warranties in, 309. 

Decide title, 298. 

Decree, 250. 

De facto officer, law of, 112. 

Defendant, 298. 

Default for non-appearance, 187. 

Degree, (of crime,) 174. 

Degree, (in descent,) 122. 

Deliver, subscribed with seal, 204. 

Demesnes, 245. 

Demise, 173. 

Deny plea, 298. 

Depose, (to swear,) 120, 163. 

Deputed sword, 24. 

Derived, 40. 

Disclaiming, 116. 

Disinherit, 161, 162. 

Dismission, 211. 

Dismiss controversy, 200. 

Dismissed offense, 25. 

Distrained, 127. 

Divorced, 187. 

Do thy office, 11. 

Doom, 22, 249. 

Double-voucher, 276. 

Dowager, 40. 

Dower, 15, m, 67, 69. 

Dowry, m, 165. 

Dowry, in lands and leases, QQ. 

Drawing swords within palace, 228. 

Drawn, hanged, and quartered, 113. 

Duress, law of, 160. 

During life, 185. 

Earnest, (to bind a bargain,) 90, 148. 
Edict, 25, 135, 170, 232. 



INDEX. 293 



Either part's agreement, 69. 

Empanelled a 'quest, 298. 

Enacted in the laws, 56. 

Enemy proclaimed, 148. 

Enfeoffed, 133. 

Enfranchise, 211. 

Enfranchisement, 205. 

Enlarge, (release from prison,) 146. 

Enrolled, 43, 206. 

Entail, 63, 161, 237. 

Entering lands, 159. 

Entered an action, 137. 

Equity, 156, 239. 

Escape, law of, 89. 

Espouse, 155. 

Espoused, 150. 

Estate unto, 40. 

Even-handed justice, 92. 

Evidence, 157, 170, 285. 

Evidence, a rule, 80. 

Evidence, rule of, in cases of legitimacy, 107. 

Evidence, simulated, 94. 

Evidence, to give in, 271. 

Exactions, 124. 

Examinations, 178. 

Examine, to, before a magistrate, 36, 38, 61. 

Execute, (a deed,) 132. 

Execution, 22, 91, 231. 

Execution, done on, 91. 

Executors, 128. 

Exempt, 153. 

Exhibit, 5. 

Exposition of the law, 56, 232. 

Extent, an, 58. 

Face to face, to bring witnesses, 178. 
Face to face, accusers, 188. 
Factor, 84, 171. 
Fee, a, 56. 



294 INDEX. 



Fee, (compensation,) 111. 

Fee, (officer's,) 86. 

Fee, (reward,) 289. 

Fee-farm, 192. 

Fee-grief, 104. 

Fee-simple, 6, 63, 159, 247, 312. 

Felon, 254. 

Felony, 158. 

Feodary, 221. 

Fine, as a penalty, 23, 56, 248. 

Fine, (real estate',) 85, 276. M 

Fine and recovery, 6, 85, 276. m 

Forfeit, 17, 25, 52, 56, 259, 306. 

Forfeiture, 52. 

Form of justice, 240. 

Further agreed, 155. 

Gaged, 259. 

Goods and chattels, 68. 

Goods, chattels, lands, tenements, 186. 

Good men and true, 34. 

Grand jury, 10. 

Grant, pasture to, 47. 

Granted, 219. 

Guardian, 110. 

Guilty, 149, 174, 275, 291. 

Have judgment, 92. 

Hearing a cause, 200. 

Hearing a matter, 200. 

Heir, 234, 244. 

Heirs forever, 161, 208. 

Held court, 187. 

"Higher law," exposition of, 170. 

Homage, (feudal,) 1, 124, 273. 

Humbly complaining, (petition,) 167. 



Impeach, to, 110. 
Impeached as a witness, 304. 



INDEX. 295 



Impediments to marriage, 302. 

Impounded, 144a. 

Impress, (into military service,) 100. 

Imprimis, 155. 

In farm, to liave in, 124. 

In lieu of, 1. 

In witness whereof, 192. 

Indenture, 108, 182, 233, 236, 276. 

Indentures, tripartite, 132. 

Indicted, 286. 

Informer, suborned, 304. 

Inheritance, 63, 127, 259. 

Inheritor, 234, 276, 308. 

Inheritrix, 144. 

Inns of court, 158. 

Interdiction, (of the realm,) 102. 

Intervallums, 139. 

Intestate, 172. 

Invest jointly, 238. 

Invested, (with an office,) 96, 238. 

Issue, (descendants,) 74, 97, 99, 100, 102, 207, 237. 

Issue, unto their, 207. 

Item, 155. 

Jointly, 238. 

Jointure, 165. 

Jointress, 260. 

Judge, 183. 

Judge, a delegate of the king, 141. 

Judge and executioner, 223. 

Judge and juror, 188. 

Judge, function of, 110. 

Judge's robe, 23. 

Judgment, 21, 24. 

Judgment, to award, 56. 

Judgment, have, 92. 

Judgment, to stand for, 56. 

Jurisdiction of bishops, 186. 

Jurisdiction, regal, 158. 



296 INDEX. 



Jury, 17. 

Justice, a, 241. 

Justice, a judge, 145, 239. 

Justicer, 239. 

Justice of the peace, 158. 

Justification that plaintiff first assaulted, 12. 

Lady, (paramount owner of an estate,) 239. 

Law, 158. 

Law-days, 283. 

Laws, out of Cade's mouth, 158. 

Laws of nature and of nations, 190. 

League, 175. 

Lease, 100. 296, 303, 308. 

Leased, 123. 

Leets, 283. 

Legacy, 207, 293. 

Legate, 186. 

Legatine, 186. 

Legitimacy, presumed conclusively, 107. 

Letters, 269, 273. 

Letters-patent, 124, 127, 185. 

Liberties, 201. 

Livery, in deed, 238. 

Livery, to sue, 124, 127, 135. 

Lord of the soil, 159. 

Maintain, (to prove,) 118, 130. 

Make good, (to prove,) 118. 

Malefactors, 19, 38. 

Manner, taken with, 44a, 131<2. 

Manual seal, 130. 

Marriage, requisites of contract of, 14, 15, 82. 

Marriage, contract and articles, 155. 

Marriage, made of none effect by decree of divorce, 187. 

Marriage, pre-contract of, 29. 

Married women, status of, at common law, 71. 

Marshal's truncheon, 23. 

Master and servant, 149. 



INDEX. 297 



Matter, 87, 136, 158. 

Miscarry, (bailment,) 149. 

Mercy, its relations to justice, 24, 25, 48, 56. 

Misprision, 41. 

Moiety, 56, 132, 259, 298. 

Mortgaged, 306. 

Motion, 182. 

Murder, premeditated, 149. 

^N'ations, laws of, 190. 
Next ensuing, 155. 
Kext heir, 160. 
Nominated in the bond, 56. 
Non com.f 36. 
Nonsuits, 278. 
Not guilty, 72, 178. 

Oath, 169, 267. 

Oath, not taken before a magistrate, not binding, 163. 

Oath, to be taken according to affiant's religion, 230. 

Object to against, 116. 

Obligations, (bonds,) 4, 158. 

Officer de facto, law of, 112. 

Open proclamation, 152. 

Ordained laws, 220. 

Outlawry, bills of, 209. 

Overt, 281. 

Own proper cost, 155. 

0-yes, 7, 194. 

Packing with a witness, 70. 

Parchment, 158, 276. 

Pardon, 30. 

Party and party, between, 200. 

Parties, 200, 

Parties interchangeably, 200. 

Parties to stand forth, 56. 

Pass on, (jury,) 17, 

Pass upon, 240. 

19a 



J98 INDEX. 



Patent, 40. 

PawD, 124. 

Passed a bill, (parliamentary law,) 142. 

Peine forte et dure, 129a. 

Penalty, 56. 

Penalty of bond, 56. 

Perjury, 38, 149. 

Perpetual succession, 63. 

Person, die in, 60. 

Plaintiff, 18, 39. 

Plea, 54, 294, 297, 298. 

Plea, hold a, 299. 

Plea, justice of, 56. 

Plea, to mitigate, 56. 

Plead, 298. 

Pleaded not guilty, 178. 

Point of law, 81, '275. 

Practice, (wrong-doing,) 157. 

Prwmunire^ and causes of, 186. 

Pre-contract of marriage, 29. 

Precedent, effect of, 56. 

Precepts, (process,) 140. 

Premeditated murder, 149. 

Premises, 1, 178. 

Prenominate, 268. 

Prerogativ'd, 284. 

Prerogative, 75. 

Prescription, law of, 164. 

Present satisfaction, 86. 

Present to, 34. 

Present trial, 177. 

Principal of bond, 56. 

Prison limits to debtor, 222. 

Privileged communication, slander, 251 

Proceed by process, 203. 

Proceeded against, 274. 

Process, 203, 211, 273. 

Process forged, (official statement,) 266. 

Proclamation, 189. 



INDEX. 299 



Proclamation to disperse, (form of,) 152. 
Procurator, 154. 
Proditor, 151. 
Produce a witness, 53, 279. 
Produced as an accuser, 279. 
Proofs, 17^. 

Prorogue, '214, 246, 252. 
Prosecutions, 209. 
Prosecute a right, 40. 
Protection out of, 186. 
Proved to tliv face, 158. 
Purchase, 288. 

Purchase, title bv, distinguished from title bv descent, 
43a, 213. 



Quest, 298. 

'Quest, verdict of, 170. 

Quiddets, 276. 

Quietus, 305. 

Quillets, 276. 

Quit a fine, 56. 

Quittance, 4. 

Ratified, 176, 259. 

Ratolorum, 4. 

"Ready" for trial, 56. 

Receipt, 45. 

Recover in a suit, 282. 

Recoveries, 276. 

Recognizances, 273. 

Record, 22. 

Records of statutes, 158. 

Recorded, 42. 

Recover, (real estate,) 85. 

Recovery, (real estate,) 75. 

Redeem from pawn, 124. 

Rejourn (adjourn) a controversy, 200, 

Released and delivered, 155. 

Remainders, 63, 



300 INDEX. 



I 



Render into, 55. 

Render to, 305. 

Repeal, (to return,) 125. 

Repealed, (to recall from exile,) 3, 130, 205. 

Repealed, (statute,) 162, 198. 

Replication, 272, 311. j. 

Report a cause, 277a. ■ 

Reprieve, 30, 32, 242. ^ 

Rescue, a, 137. 

Reservation, (in grant,) 238. 

Resignation of crown, effect of, 160. 

Respite, 28, 232. 

Reverse, 249. 

Reversion, 122, 192. 

Revoke, to, an election, 202. 

Robed justice, 239. 

Saliqlte law, (exposition of,) 143, 144. 

Seal, 37, 52, 56, 108, 126, 158, 204, 207, 256, 274, 288. 

Seal to deed, 192. 

Seal to blank commission, 193. 

Sealed between us, 216. 

Seal-manual, 288. 

Seal to indenture, 108. 

Sealed, 150, 216, 259, 262. 

Sealed interchangeably, 132. 

Sealed under, 50. 

Sealing-day, 40. 

Seals, the great, 185, 186. 

Seize a stray, 159. 

Seize into our hands, 124. 

Seized of lands, 259. 

Self-defense, 243, 275. 

Sentence, 24, 148. 

Sentence pronounced, 170. 

Sergeant, 277a. 

Serve by indenture, 236. 

Served, (process,) 140, 295. 

Session of court, 78, 79, 280, 283, 296a. 



INDEX. 301 



Several man, every, 208. 

Severalty, tenancy in, 47. 

Severalty, estate in, distinguished from common, 307. 

Silence commanded, 179. 

Single bond, 52. 

Slander, 251. 

Sound, exposition, a most, 56. 

Specialties, 46, 66. 

Standing mute, 129a. 

Stands for judgment, 56. 

Star chamber, 4. 

Statutes, 42, 198. 

Statutes, biting, 158. 

Statutes, (merchant and staple,) 276, 306. 

Statutes, (staple,) 306. 

Statute, rigour of, 16. 

Statutes that have slept, 16. 

Stray, 144a, 159. 

Subornation, 156, 291. 

Suborned, 88, 95, 286, 304; 

Subsidy, 154. 

Subscribe, 42. 

Subscribe with seal, 204. 

Succeed as heir, 234. 

Succession, bar from, 83. 

Sue, 306. 

Sue to, 282. 

Suicide not entitled to Christian burial, 275. 

Suit, 287. 

Suit, arrested at, 87. 

Suit, a losing, 56. 

Suit, unto a, 154. 

Summon, 78. 

Surety, 50, 306. 

Surety, paying debt, 306. 

Swear him, 120. 

Sworn twelve, (jury,) 17. 



Tables of his law, 170. 



302 INDEX. 



Temporal lands, 142. 

Tenancy in aapite, 158. 

Tenants, 298. 

Tender in court, 56. 

Tenders, 264. 

Tendered, 2, 289. 

Tenement, 123. 

Tenor, 37, 56, 189, 223, 232. 

Tenor, according to, 56. 

Tenures, 276. 

Term, (lease,) 308. 

Term, 42, 43. 

Term of court, 59, 139. 

Term of life, 301. 

Testament, (will,) 129, 150, 195, 207. 293. 

Till further day, 182. 

Time, the old justice, 61. 

Title, a crazed, 40. 

Traitorously, 158. 

Transporting, (bailment,) 149. 

Treason, law of, 148. 

Try to, 61. 

Unreversed, 2. 

Untendered, 205. 

Urge against, to, 176. 

Utter, (to sell or give out,) 238. 

Yacatiox, 59. 
Verdict, 121, 197, 298. 
Verdict given up to judge, 170. 
Videlicet, 60. 
Viva-wee, 178. 
Vouch, 281. 

Wager of battle, procedure in, 121. 
Ward, in, 62. 
Warrant, 4, 110, 114. 
Warranties in deeds, 309. 



INDEX. 303 



Waste, 6. 

Wax, (seal,) 388. 

Wills, 128, 195, 207, 208, 293. 

Witness to deed, 192. 

Witness to produce a, 53. 

Witnesses, 178. 

Wrest, 56, 143. 

Writ, 223, 242. 

Writ sued against you, 186. 

Your honor, 18. 



WEST PUBLISHINQ OO., PRINTERS, SAINT PAUL, MINN. 



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